November 08, 2008	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 9, 1429

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: Indian police plan to quiz more army officers linked to rightwing Hindu extremists after a serving lieutenant colonel among them was accused of planting bombs to target Muslims, reports said on Friday.

Press Trust of India said Defence Minister A. J. Antony expressed serious concern over the alleged involvement of Lt-Col Shrikant Purohit in what is known as the Malegaon bomb plot.

It said the defence ministry has okayed a thorough investigation and promised “necessary action” against those involved.

Accordingly, the government was committed to go to the root of the September 29 blasts near a mosque in Malegaon in Maharashtra that claimed six lives.

Links with other bomb plots are being looked into.

“This incident is a matter of serious concern for all of us. We are very determined to go to the root of the whole thing,” Mr Antony told reporters on the margins of a public function.

He avoided direct reply on the involvement of more serving officers, PTI said.

In a separate report, however, the agency said a colonel posted in Deolali and a major may face interrogation in connection with the probe into the Malegaon affair “as concerns over more officers coming under the scanner have rattled the armed forces.”

As Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorism Force sought permission from the Defence Ministry to question more army personnel, there were reports that a retired Lt-Gen and a couple of serving colonels could also be involved, report said.

A Lt-Col in Madhya Pradesh was reportedly picked up for questioning but there was no official word on it. More arrests are not ruled out, PTI said.

It added that police and central security agencies were also trying to trace the links of two of the persons arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts to Jammu and Kashmir amidst suspicion that the RDX used in the Maharashtra town could have been smuggled from the militancy-hit state.

They said Purohit’s laptop, which could throw light on blast, has gone missing after he was shifted to Mumbai to assist the ATS in investigations from his place of posting Panchmari in Madhya Pradesh.

They suspect Purohit, after being posted in Military Intelligence, used his contacts built during his tenure in Jammu and Kashmir where he was stationed with the 41 Rashtriya Rifles.

Mr Sameer Kulkarni, another of the nine arrested persons, is also alleged to have travelled to Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year and the security agencies now want to find out his links in that state, PTI said.