JAIPUR, May 16: Police probing Jaipur bomb blasts said on Friday that new evidence pointed increasingly towards Indian Muslim extremists backed by a Bangladeshi militant group as being behind the blasts.
Investigators said the attack bore hallmarks of the Bangladeshi militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI), suspected to be behind several previous blasts in India.
“The modus operandi of the entire operation, the way the bombs were manufactured and concealed in bags are very similar to the way HuJI operates,” Pankaj Singh, a senior police officer in Rajasthan state where the attacks happened, told Reuters.“It is very possible that Indian groups helped them,” Singh said in Jaipur.
Rajasthan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister R.S. Rathore said on Friday that 18 people, mainly Bangladeshi migrants, were being questioned by police. He also said the latest toll was 63 dead.
Bangladeshi officials said India should not jump to conclusions.
“While we don’t rule out the existence of HuJI in Bangladesh, we can say their activity has been drastically controlled by the security agencies here,” said Hasan Mahmood Khandaker, director-general of the Rapid Action Battalion.
Indian police said they were now looking for Indian suspects and had released several sketches of people who could have been the bombers and the ones who bought bicycles in Jaipur.
Top government officials in Dhaka also urged the Indian media not to point the finger at “foreign forces” for the multiple explosions.
“Bangladesh banned the HuJI group years ago after it was banned in the United States and other countries as a top militant organisation,” said Khandaker.
“Dozens of HuJI activists in Bangladesh, including their chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, have been detained over the years.
Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign affairs adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, said “no one should point finger at Bangladesh automatically for any suspected HuJI attack in other countries.”
“These are terrorists who have done these sordid and heinous deeds, and terrorists have no boundaries,” he said.
“Also, the media should not jump to conclusions before thorough investigation are concluded.”—Reuters