Islamic militants claim deadly bombings in India

BOMB CLAIMED: A previously-unknown Islamic militant group has claimed responsibility for a string of blasts that killed 63 people in the Indian tourist city of Jaipur.(AFP)

A previously-unknown Islamic militant group has claimed responsibility for a string of blasts that killed 63 people in the Indian tourist city of Jaipur, top officials told newswire AFP on Thursday.

Gulab Chand Kataria, home minister of the northern state of Rajasthan of which Jaipur is the capital, said the police were investigating the claim, which he added was e-mailed to several media organisations.

"They [the group] sent a video saying 'you support America and Britain and we will put pressure on them and on you,'" Kataria told newswire AFP.

"The police has seen it. It also has a few seconds of the bicycle [used in the attacks]," the home ministers said in Jaipur.

He said the group that sent the mail identified itself as "Indian Mujahedeen" - a previously unknown group which claims to be fighting Indian rule.

The e-mailed video clips showed a bicycle which it said was packed with explosives and set off at one of the eight blast locations in Jaipur.

Jaipur city police chief Pankaj Singh said the mail bore the sender's name as "Indian Mujahedeen."

"It's a post-dated e-mail and it was sent after the attacks claiming 'we did it' and we are trying to verify whether it is the source or a false claim," police inspector-general Singh told newswire AFP.

Some 200 people were also injured in the bombings, which police said was the first "terror" attack in the Rajasthan state capital.

Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje said Wednesday that explosives and ammonium nitrate mixed with steel balls were wired to timing devices and detonated at the eight blast sites.

The string of bombs which went off Tuesday night at crowded markets in Jaipur were believed to have been planted on bicycles, police say.

Detectives released a sketch on Wednesday night of a suspect that they wanted to interview, and said more than 200 people had been rounded up for questioning.

Two people have also been arrested, chief minister Raje had said earlier.

India's junior home minister Shriprakash Jaiswal told reporters "the people responsible for these attacks have foreign connections," without naming Pakistan.

Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir are usually blamed for such attacks which have plagued major Indian cities for years.

The blasts went off over a span of just 12 minutes and were close to several Hindu temples as well as the packed markets in the city, 260 kilometres west of the Indian capital.

Minister Kataria told newswire AFP on Wednesday around a dozen people had been detained. "We are trying our best to unravel the conspiracy behind this dastardly attack," he said.

Among those detained in the city, which was under a day-time curfew, were one of the wounded and a rickshaw puller, a police official said.

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READERS' COMMENTS

BOMB BLASTS IN JAIPUR
Posted by BUDDHADEB MOOKERJEE, Dubai, U A E on Thursday 15 May 2008 at 16:08 UAE time


Call it by whatever name, terrorism or jihad, nobody can justify killing of innocent people who belong to all sections of the society. Immediate action must be launched to identify the criminals and given exemplary punishment. Otherwise, sooner than later we will forget the incidence until another terrorist action somewhere in the world shakes us up. This is not on. The international community must not take it lying down and let the criminals win. At this rate the human race will soon lose all respect for law and its enforcement.

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