Engineer among new arrests in Mumbai rail blasts

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Two Indian Muslims, one of them a chemical engineer, have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in this month’s Mumbai train bombings that killed more than 180 people, police said on Wednesday.

The latest arrests take the number of people in police custody to six in an investigation that has straddled several Indian states as well as neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh.

Police have raided slums and Muslim quarters across India, and questioned hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, but most have been allowed to go.

“Two men were arrested yesterday (Tuesday) night for their role in the blast incidents,” K.P. Raghuvanshi, chief of Mumbai Police’s anti-terrorism squad, told Reuters.

 

Police suspect the two provided logistical support to the bombers, and said they visited Pakistan to receive training.

“Everyday the picture is becoming clear. We will place facts in the court,” Raghuvanshi said.

The two men were remanded in police custody till August 7.

Earlier this week, Tanvir Ansari, a doctor of traditional Indian medicine, was arrested in connection with the case. Police said he too had gone to Pakistan in 2004 to train in the use of weapons and bomb-making.

Elsewhere, in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian army said it was questioning two soldiers for alleged links with Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba which, along with Pakistani military spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, is suspected to be behind the Mumbai attacks.

Islamabad has rejected the charges as unsubstantiated and offered New Delhi help in the investigations, which India has turned down.

The soldiers have been accused of giving food and water to the militants who had threatened to kill their families.

“The soldiers were picked up in early July and we have found they have been giving some kind of logistical support, such as food and water, to the militants,” an army officer said.

This is the first known case of militants making contacts in India’s 1.1 million-strong army, he said.

 

Lashkar is among half-a-dozen frontline militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, a 16-year conflict that has killed more than 45,000 people.