Indian police hunt for bomb leads in slums

Police officers trawled slums and criminal hideouts in India's capital yesterday rounding up suspects after serial bombings in the city a day earlier killed at least 21 people and wounded nearly 100.

Police said they were pursuing several leads, including talking to an 11-year-old boy who said he had seen two men drop off a large plastic bag at one of the blast sites.

At hospitals, though, relatives of victims accused police of failing to protect them. "Down with the police," they shouted, some with tears in their eyes. "We don't trust you any more".

Some women prayed at a small temple inside one of the hospitals. Others cried. Some rushed about frantically looking for their missing relatives.

At least five bombs exploded in quick succession in crowded markets and streets in the heart of New Delhi on Saturday night.

A group calling itself the Indian Mujahideensent an e-mail to television stations shortly after the first explosion saying it was responsible.

The group, believed to be an offshoot of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India, has sent similar e-mails before or after several major attacks in India in recent months.

"Our intense, accurate and successive attacks ... will continue to punish you even before your earlier wounds have healed," it said, referring to bomb attacks in Indian cities in May and July that together killed more than 120.

Throughout Saturday night, hundreds of people, mostly residents of the New Delhi neighborhoods hit by bombs, were questioned before being allowed to go.

"We have detained 10 to 12 people for further questioning," said Rajan Bhagat of Delhi Police, adding that no formal arrests had been made.

Police said they were studying footage from closed-circuit television cameras at two of the markets hit by bombs.

"We need to see if there is anything in it," said H.G.S. Dhaliwal, a deputy police commissioner.

The National Counterterrorism Center in Washington says 3,674 people had been killed in militant attacks in India between January 2004 and March 2007, a death toll second only to that in Iraq.

E-mail from Mumbai

The investigation net widened to the financial capital of Mumbai after it was found the e-mail had originated from there.

Mumbai, which has seen some of India's worst attacks, was also linked to coordinated bombings in the western city of Ahmedabad in July after another e-mail was traced to the city.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/15/2008 page8)