Police probing bombings in western India that killed 61 people said on Friday that new evidence pointed increasingly towards Indian militants backed by a Bangladeshi militant group as being behind the blasts. Investigators said the attack bore hallmarks of the Bangladeshi militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI), suspected to be behind several previous blasts in India. “The modus operandi of the entire operation, the way the bombs were manufactured and concealed in bags are very similar to the way HuJI operates,” Pankaj Singh, a senior police officer in Rajasthan state where the attacks happened, told Reuters. “It is very possible that Indian groups helped them,” Singh said in Jaipur.
Bangladesh’s response: Bangladeshi officials said India should not jump to conclusions. “While we don’t rule out the existence of HuJI in Bangladesh we can say their activity has been drastically controlled by the security agencies here,” Hasan Mahmood Khandaker, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion, told Reuters. Indian police said they were now looking for Indian suspects and have released several sketches of people who could have been the bombers and the ones who bought bicycles in Jaipur.
An email to local media, from a group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attack. Similar claims were made minutes before a blast in Uttar Pradesh state last year. The email also included a video of a bicycle with a bag strapped to it and showed the bikeÂ’s serial number, which the police said matched with one of the bicycles from the blast site.
Indian police said they were taking the email “very seriously”, although some police officers and the chief minister have questioned its authenticity. “Some portions of the email are definitely true, some appears to be wrong and is an attempt to mislead investigations,” Singh said. “But they did get the serial number right.” In the email, the little known Indian Mujahideen declared open war on India and threatened more attacks on tourists.
Many foreign tourists said they were scared and were leaving Jaipur, in spite of the police assuring them of safety. “We saved a lot of money working and then decided to spend quality time in Jaipur, but it has been a shame that we have been stranded in the hotel most of the time,” said Samuel and Emily, a young couple from Southampton in England. “We are going back.”
Some foreign tourists said they have not been able to shop or move freely inside Jaipur, also known as the pink city because of the colour of its ancient buildings. “We are very unhappy, we could not shop,” said one tourist, as he boarded a bus along with a group of Americans. Armed police patrolled the streets of Jaipur’s famous old city. Some local people who have not been able to trace their relatives since the blast were scouting hospitals.