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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian government probes Kashmir bomb link |
| 2007-02-21 |
| Indian investigators are looking into a suspicious phone call made to Pakistani Kashmir just after bombs on a train bound for Pakistan killed 68 people, an official said on Wednesday, but Kashmiri militants denied any role. Even though most of the victims were Pakistani, Indian police say Islamic extremists are prime suspects, perhaps worried that Pakistan would one day renounce its claim to the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. And intelligence agencies seem to think that a phone call from Delhi to Pakistani Kashmir just after the attack could provide an important lead. The Times of India newspaper quoted a home ministry official on Wednesday as saying the call had been recorded and could hold "the key to the entire puzzle". "Yes, a call was made and it is a vital link," an official from India's Intelligence Bureau, told Reuters. On Wednesday, the focus of the investigation moved to the teeming streets of Old Delhi. Police believe the suitcases could have been bought there before being loaded on the train, and said they were questioning shopkeepers. "We are also examining the video recordings of the close-circuit television at the Old Delhi railway station, though the visuals are not of a good quality," a senior police officer said, on condition of anonymity. "The pattern points to Islamic terrorists. No other group has the capability of a well-planned operation like this," he added. In Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory at the core of decades of hostility between India and Pakistan, militants vehemently denied any role. "We strongly condemn the attack on innocent people," the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based alliance of Kashmiri militant groups, said in a statement. "Our fight is against the Indian government and not against innocent civilians," it said. "Our target is Indian security forces and our aim is liberation." Suspicion in India after such attacks usually falls on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is not part of the mainly Kashmiri UJC and is seen as promoting a more hardline Islamist agenda. But a caller identifying himself as Abdullah Gaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar, told Reuters in Kashmir that his group was not responsible. "The claims by Indian police that Mujahideen (holy warriors) are behind the blasts is malicious propaganda aimed at maligning the image of Mujahideen," he said. "This brutal act is the handiwork of Indian agencies, Hindu hardliners including Shiv Sena," he said, referring to a Hindu-nationalist political party. A similar cycle of accusation and denial came after serial bomb attacks on trains in Mumbai in July that killed 186 people. At the time, Indian police blamed Pakistan-based militants but have failed to come up with clinching evidence to present to Islamabad. |
| Posted by:ryuge |