Police charged four people Monday with terrorist acts in India's financial hub, accusing them of setting off three bombs that killed 55 people to avenge the deaths of Muslims in religious riots last year. The suspects — including a married couple and their teenage daughter — were arrested under India's tough anti-terrorism law and could face the death penalty.
| Why not? 55 other people got it, and they didn't even do anything... |
They are accused in connection with twin car bombings last week in Bombay that killed 52 people and wounded 150 and a July 28 blast on a bus that killed three and wounded 31. Arshad Ansari, 26, Fahimida Syed Mohammed Hanif, 37, and her 18-year-old daughter, Farheen Rahim, appeared in court in Bombay — the women with scarves covering their heads. Hanif's husband, Syed Rahim, 45, is hospitalized with high blood pressure.
| That has something to do with the scarves over their heads? Or with their appearance in court? Or is he the fourth person charged? (Another Great Moment in Journalism™)... |
Police say they believe Hanif planted the bomb on the bus, and that the group placed a bomb at an industrial enclave outside Bombay but it failed to explode. They said the four belong to a local unit of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"They call themselves the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force," Bombay Police Commissioner Ranjit Sharma told reporters. Although many Muslims died in last week's blasts, the government believes the attacks could be linked to religious riots in western Gujarat state last year. After the riots, some of the Muslim attackers went to the United Arab Emirates and "met people there," said Chhagan Bhujbal, the state's deputy chief minister. "This is a big conspiracy. There cannot be only two or four people behind it."
| Well, there could be. But there probably aren't. Wonder where those explosives might have come from... |
In a search of the family's residence, police said, they found bomb-making materials including 205 gelatin sticks, 20 detonators, 12 timers, wires and soldering machines.
| That's some pretty spicy chapatis the little woman was whupping up... |
"They have been charged ... for striking terror in the minds of people and committing terrorist acts," prosecutor Rohini Salian said. |