Suspects sought in India bombings

NY Times:

Indian authorities rounded up hundreds of people for questioning on Thursday and released photographs of two suspects in connection with the train bombings here that killed about 180 people this week. A third suspect was named on Friday.

On Thursday, a man identifying himself as a member of a new chapter of Al Qaeda in the disputed territory of Kashmir, which Pakistan and India both claim, telephoned a news agency to congratulate the perpetrators. Intelligence officials said they had not verified whether the call was authentic, and some in the government voiced skepticism that a Qaeda chapter had been formed.

But the call raised the specter that groups claiming affinity with Al Qaeda had taken up the cause in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim area that has long been the scene of terrorist attacks and an Islamic insurgency, or that some Kashmir insurgents had formed links to Al Qaeda.

Officials in the capital, New Delhi, said they would have to investigate. “We can’t take it lightly,” said an intelligence official who is prohibited from speaking to the news media.

The police in Mumbai — also known as Bombay, and home to a substantial Muslim minority — combed the city overnight and detained what the city’s commissioner of police, A. N. Roy, estimated to be up to 500 people.

Mr. Roy declined to specify how many remained in detention, or whether the interrogations yielded any leads. The police pointed out that no arrests had been made in connection with Tuesday’s bombings.

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Sometimes al Qaeda initially keeps its roll ambigious when it conducts mass murder attacks, and so far, the only connection is an admiring phone call. It is the kind they might have made to god for the destriction wrought by Katrina. The Indians sould not fail to look at the number on state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. This attack would fit with in the framework of the chaos they are attempting to throw up as the UN considers sanctions for their nuke program. They are a country without morals and with few inhibitions when it comes to mass murder to achieve their objectives.