NASHIK (India), Oct 24: Police have arrested three Hindus on suspicion of planting a bomb in a market crowded with Muslim shoppers last month that killed five people, an official said on Friday.

Public prosecutor R.J. Misar said the three — two men and one woman — were suspected of planting a crude bomb in Malegaon, a city 300km northeast of Mumbai. The bomb, which was placed on a motorcycle, killed five people and wounded 30 others on Sept 30 as Muslims were shopping just before Iftar.

The suspects were taken to a magistrate’s court in Nashik, where chief judicial magistrate K.D. Boche ordered them held until Nov 3. Boche refused to say whether the three belonged to a militant organisation. “We are still looking into which group they belonged to,” he told reporters.—AP