Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-India-Train-Bombings.html
September 30, 2006
Police in India Say Pakistan’s Spy Agency Planned Train Blasts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:03 a.m. ET [India] [followup on July’s commuter-train attacks in Bombay] [Indian authorities are now saying it wasn’t just jihadis among them but, rather, Pakistani state sympathizers using their good offices] [if true, this is truly explosive] [if false it’s still explosive] [use psci 469] [note: remember India’s is the world 3rd of 4th most populous Muslim contry despite Lord Montbadden’s divisions] [*****************]
MUMBAI, India (AP) -- The police officer leading the investigation into train bombings that killed more than 200 people in the Indian city of Mumbai in July accused Pakistan's spy agency on Saturday of masterminding the attack. [********] [Pakistani intelligence services notoriously infiltrated by Jihadis] [Pakistani ISI] [***************]
Tariq Azim, Pakistan's minister of state for information, denied the claim, calling it ''sad and unfortunate.''
''We reject this allegation, and demand that India should provide us any evidence, if they have,'' [********] Azim told The Associated Press.
Mumbai police Commissioner A.N. Roy said an intensive investigation that included using truth serum on suspects revealed that Pakistan's top spy agency had ''masterminded'' the bombings. [*********]
Roy said Pakistan's Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, [*******] began planning the attacks in March and later provided training to those who carried out the bombings in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. [************]
''The terror plot was ISI sponsored and executed by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operatives with help from the Students Islamic Movement of India,'' [*******] Roy said at a news conference to announce the completion of the investigation.
Lashkar is a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group, while the Students Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, is a banned Islamic group. [*********]
So far 15 people have been arrested, including 11 Pakistanis, Roy said, adding that three Indians were still on the run and another Pakistani was killed in one of the blasts. [************]
Pakistan has in the past denied involvement in the attacks and it was not immediately clear how the revelations would affect the fragile peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Azim said it was not the first time that Indian officials had blamed Pakistan for an attack.
''Whenever some bad thing happens in India, they start blaming us for it,'' he said. ''Such allegations only give benefit to the real culprits, who escape arrests.'' [****] [****]
In Pakistan, no spokesman for the outlawed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group was immediately available for comment.
The Indian allegation came days after the BBC reported that a document prepared for Britain's Defense Ministry accused ISI of indirectly supporting terrorist groups including al-Qaida. [****************************]
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf strongly rejected the documents, while Britain's Ministry of Defense also clarified that the leaked document was academic research and did not represent the British government's view. [************]
On Saturday, the BBC quoted Musharraf as saying the West would be ''brought to its knees'' without Pakistan's support in the war on terror. [thank god he’s our ally] [*********]
In the BBC Radio 4 interview, he also rejected allegations against ISI, saying ''if ISI is not with you, you will fail.''
Roy gave a detailed description of how the explosives were transported into India and by whom. He also described how the bombs were packed into pressure cookers and placed on the trains.
Roy said the Pakistanis slipped into India, some going over their shared border, while others went through neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh. There they were met by Indians who brought them to Mumbai and housed them in rented apartments, [***********] he said.
''It was a professional, precise and well-planned operation,'' he said.
Police cracked the case after tracking down a suspicious call from Mumbai to the Nepal border region, Roy said. There they picked up one of the suspects, who led them to others. [*************]
However, Roy said that many of the suspects had been trained to resist interrogation and only the use of truth serum helped tie loose ends together. [***********] [this sounds rather suspect] [************]]
Seven bombs ripped through suburban trains in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, killing at least 207 people and injured another 700. Mumbai was formerly known as Bombay.
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is one of the Islamic groups fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict. [*********]
Associated Press Writer Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press