India: American man is main suspect for bombs that killed 45?

Indian police link US man's computer to e-mail taking credit for bombs that killed 45 2008-07-29 03:18:08 - AHMADABAD, India (AP) - Police raided the home of an American citizen in Mumbai, India's financial capital, and seized a computer from which an e-mail claiming responsibility for bombings that killed 45 people in western India was believed to have been sent, officials said. The 48-year-old American has not been detained, said Kirit Sonawane, a police officer involved in the raid. The man is so far not a suspect, police said Monday. Anti-terrorism police also arrested an underworld figure in Ahmadabad with apparent ties to a banned Muslim group and were determining whether he had any connection to the weekend attack in the city, said deputy police chief Ashish Bhatia. At least 16 bombs tore through Ahmadabad around dusk Saturday, killing 45 people and wounding 161 others, said state Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas. It was the second series of blasts in India in two days. An obscure Islamic militant group took credit for the Ahmadabad attack. «In the name of Allah the Indian Mujahideen strike again! Do whatever you can, within 5 minutes from now, feel the terror of Death!» said an e-mail from the group sent to several Indian television stations minutes before the blasts began. The e-mail's subject line said «Await 5 minutes for the revenge of Gujarat,» an apparent reference to 2002 riots in the western state that left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. The historic city of Ahmadabad was the scene of much of the 2002 violence. Saturday's e-mail, sent from a Yahoo account and written in English, was made available to the AP by CNN-IBN, one of the TV stations that received the warning. Late Sunday, police raided a home in a Mumbai suburb rented by the U.S. citizen, believing the e-mail may have been sent from a computer there. Mumbai police Chief Hassan Gafoor said police confiscated a computer and were analyzing the hard drive. Mumbai police say it is likely that the e-mail was forwarded and may not have originated from the computer of the U.S. citizen. A.N. Roy, the state police chief of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, said no arrests had been made so far. «He is not yet a suspect,» Roy said of the U.S. national, declining to give any further details about the e-mail. U.S. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the U.S. had no information about the detention. Gallegos offered condolences and called the attack a «heinous act. In Ahmadabad, police arrested a man identified as Abdul Haleem who was suspected of involvement in the plot, Bhatia said. Haleem had ties to the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India and groups involved in the 2002 riots, he said. On Monday, an Ahmadabad court ordered Haleem held for 14 days. India has been hit repeatedly by bombings in recent years. Nearly all have been blamed on Islamic militants who allegedly want to provoke violence between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority, although officials rarely offer hard evidence implicating a specific group. Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam in Mumbai, R.K. Misra in Ahmadabad, and Desmond Butler in Washington contributed to this report.

Ban deplores series of deadly bombings in India

28 July 2008 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the series of bombings that struck two Indian cities in recent days, killing and wounding numerous civilians. Nearly 50 people have reportedly been killed and over 100 wounded as a result of the 17 blasts which struck residential areas, market places, public transport and hospitals within an hour on Saturday in the western city of Ahmedabad. That attack came a day after several devices went off in the southern city of Bangalore, killing two people.  “The Secretary-General sends his deepest sympathies to the families of those who lost their lives, the wounded and the people and Government of India,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement issued yesterday.  “He reiterates that no cause or grievance can justify terrorist acts of this kind and appeals for restraint in the face of such provocation,” the statement added.