Posted on 05/15/2008 4:29:29 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
JAIPUR, India (AFP) — A previously-unknown Islamic group claimed responsibility for a string of bombings that killed 63 people and warned of more attacks on Indian tourist targets, officials said Thursday.
Gulab Chand Kataria, home minister of the northern state of Rajasthan of which Jaipur is the capital, told AFP police were investigating the claim made in a video clip emailed to several media organisations.
The "Indian Mujahideen is waging an open war against the country for supporting the United States and the United Kingdom on international issues," the email said.
"India should stop supporting the United States ... and if you do continue then get ready to face more attacks at other important tourist places," it warned.
Kataria added that the clip also showed a few seconds of a bicycle purportedly packed with explosives which was later set off at one of the eight blast locations in Jaipur.
"It's a post-dated email and it was sent after the attacks claiming 'we did it' and we are trying to verify whether it is the source or a false claim," Jaipur police chief Pankaj Singh told AFP.
Police said the email was sent from a Internet cafe in Sahibabad town, close to New Delhi, and added the account was created Wednesday, using the British domain of Yahoo!
Sahibabad detectives detained the owner of the cafe for questioning on Thursday.
Muslim quarters in Jaipur meanwhile remained shuttered as Rajasthan's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party called a dawn-to-dusk protest strike and police extended a curfew for the second straight day.
The lanes on either side of a Hindu temple which India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi visited Thursday were largely deserted.
Doors were bolted and strangers had to knock to be let in -- something that residents say almost never happens here.
"The doors on this street are usually open till one in the morning," said Shaheen Sazid, 30. "But everyone is afraid. The kid are not sleeping."
Sazid's house, like many in this city, is in mourning -- one of her nieces is in hospital. Another was buried Wednesday.
The two sisters, 12-year-old Irma and 14-year-old Alina Maruf, had gone to buy yoghurt when a bomb went off in front of the temple a few doors from their home.
The bombs, planted on bicycles, went off Tuesday night over a span of just 12 minutes at crowded markets and close to several Hindu temples in the city, 260 kilometres (160 miles) west of the Indian capital
Some 216 people were wounded in what police said was the first "terror" attack in the Rajasthan state capital.
About 200 people have been detained for questioning, police said. Among them were one of the wounded and a rickshaw puller.
State chief minister Vasundhara Raje said two suspects had been arrested and that explosives and ammonium nitrate mixed with steel balls were wired to timing devices and detonated at the blast sites.
Detectives released a sketch on Wednesday night of a suspect that they wanted to interview.
India's junior home minister Shriprakash Jaiswal told reporters "the people responsible for these attacks have foreign connections," without naming Pakistan.
Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir are usually blamed for such attacks which have plagued India for years.
'There is no Indian Mujahideen; it is a pseudo name' http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/15rajblast9.htm
The Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the Jaipur blasts. This is the second time that the name of this lesser known outfit is coming to the forefront. The first time that the country heard of this outfit was during the Uttar Pradesh court blasts in November last year. The Indian Mujahideen had in an email claimed responsibility for the UP blasts. Though investigating agencies probed into the antecedents of this new outfit, finally they came to the conclusion that the blasts were undertaken by HuJI. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau told rediff.com that the Indian Mujahideen is a creation of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihadi and the rejuvenated banned outfit SIMI. When the HuJI roped in SIMI to carry out logistic work for it in India, it was also decided that they would use two pseudo names to claim responsibility after the attack. While Indian Mujahideen was one of the names, the other was Guru Alhindi. Investigators looking into the Hyderabad and the UP blasts which are similar in nature told rediff.com that though the Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility, they have not found any traces of this outfit. None of the material had mentioned the name of Indian Mujahideen. It was during the interrogations that took place in Karnataka where seven suspected terrorists were arrested did the name Indian Mujahideen figure for the first time. These persons were questioned about the outfit and they reportedly told the police that it was a pseudo name used by SIMI activists to divert the police. It was also revealed that for every person in the force, it was mandatory to have five different names. This is a relatively new ploy by HuJI and SIMI in order to keep their identity concealed. After the UP blasts, a mail had been sent in the name of Mohammad Shameem, claiming that the Indian Mujahideen had carried out the attack. Investigations in the case only revealed that Shameem was a HuJI operative involved in the recruitment of youth in the North. The IB also says that by concealing their identity, they also avoid international pressure which has stepped up the war on terror. Hence by floating pseudo names, not only do they distract the police from the main line of investigation, but keep the heat low on themselves. |
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5DCE22B2-675C-4856-8465-FC0A579707E8.htm
NEWS ASIA-PACIFIC
Arrests over India bombings
Indian police have arrested two more men a day after a series of bombings killed dozens and left more than 200 wounded in the northern tourist city of Jaipur, a state official said.
Vasundhara Raje, chief minister of Rajasthan state, said several others were detained for questioning in relation to the incident.
“We have information that 63 people have died and many are injured critically,” she said on Wednesday.
“RDX and ammonium nitrate were used. Ball-bearings were used, which have weight, and they behave like tiny missiles. Timing devices were used.”
Raje said the bombings “seems to have been done by some international group”.
Police believe the bombs that went off within minutes of each other were planted on bicycles.
Curfew lifted
Authorities also lifted a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed immediately after the explosions rocked crowded markets on Tuesday night.
The curfew and additional police were aimed at preventing any retaliatory violence as authorities suspect Islamic militants to be behind the blasts and fear potential clashes between the city’s Hindu majority and its sizeable Muslim minority.
Earlier Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajasthan’s home minister, said around a dozen people had been detained.
“We are trying our best to unravel the conspiracy behind this dastardly attack,” he told AFP.
Among those detained were a rickshaw puller and one of the wounded, said police, releasing a sketch of a suspect they wanted to question.
Bicycle bombs
Police say the bombs, many of them strapped to bicycles, exploded within minutes of each other on Tuesday evening.
The blasts targeted busy markets and Hindu temples, leaving hundreds of people injured.
No one has claimed responsibility for India’s deadliest bomb attacks in nearly two years.
Authorities have suggested Pakistan-based groups, which India accuses its neighbour and rival of backing, were to blame.
“Obviously it’s a terrorist attack,” said A.S. Gill, the police chief of Rajasthan.
“The way it has been done, the attempt was to cause the maximum damage to human life.”
An eighth bomb failed to explode and was defused by police.
Al Jazeera correspondent Matt McClure reporting from Jaipur said building and shop signs around one of the attack sites were pockmarked with holes from ballbearings that police say were packed into the bombs.
‘State of terror’
Ashok Parnami, the city’s mayor, said Jaipur had been placed in “a state of terror” by the attacks.
One bomb went off at a market near a Hindu temple.
Tuesday is the day of worship set aside for Hanuman, and the temple was crowded with people offering prayers on their way home from work.
Another bomb detonated near the Johari Bazaar, the city’s jewellery market and a popular tourist destination.
May is considered low season for the city’s tourism industry and there were no immediate indication that foreigners had been caught in any of the explosions.
“One can’t rule out the involvement of a foreign power,” said Sriprakash Jaiswal, India’s junior home minister. He refused to say if he was talking about Pakistan, but said “the blasts are part of a big conspiracy”.
Spate of bombings
Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, is due to visit Pakistan in just over a week to review the four-year-old peace process.
His trip will be his first since a new, civilian government took over in Pakistan.
Indian authorities have blamed Pakistan-based groups for a spate of bombings that have killed nearly 400 people since 2005.
Pakistan denies any role in the bombings.
Indian authorities stepped up security at airports and railway stations across the country after Tuesday’s attacks.
Big surprise, it was Islamic terrorists who did it. Maybe our liberal media will be aghast at this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.