Police said yesterday they were looking at Hindu or Muslim extremist groups in the investigation of blasts that killed 31 outside a mosque in western India, but the probe had made little headway.
Analysts said the devastating attack that injured nearly 300 would mark a significant watershed if it was proved Hindu hardliners were involved.
"We're keeping our minds open to any kind of involvement," said P.K. Jain, the district's police chief. "The investigation is quite widespread."
He denied that the intelligence community had ignored threats from Hindu hardliners after a series of attacks blamed on Islamic militants including July's Mumbai train blasts that killed nearly 190 people.
Little movement
Investigators blamed those blasts on Islamic rebels opposed to New Delhi's rule in Kashmir. Mumbai is the state capital of Maharashtra.
"Whatever splinter groups there are, they are very much under watch," Jain told reporters.
But he admitted that the investigation had not moved far since Friday's attacks.
"We released two sketches of two suspects. That's the only headway that we've made," he said. "There are other leads that we are investigating."
Bombs attached to bicycles went off outside a mosque at Malegaon in western India as thousands of worshippers attended Friday prayers to mark Shab-e-Bharat, an Islamic festival and a day devoted to prayer.
The attack is being viewed as a deliberate attempt to hit Muslim worshippers or to spark wider disturbances in an area of Maharashtra state with a history of communal violence.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the Malegaon blasts and the country's political leadership have not identified any group suspected of the attack.
Police have released artists' sketches of two men believed to have bought two bicycles used for the attacks and said test results on explosive debris were due yesterday.
Indian media yesterday said the focus of intelligence gathering had been on Islamic militants with little information on right-wing Hindus blamed for much smaller attacks outside mosques in 2002 and 2003.
"Police grope in the dark on Hindu groups," said a headline in yesterday's Times of India.
It quoted unnamed officials sources saying the "entire machinery" of intelligence gathering was focused on Islamic militants.
Hindu link
Police were probing links between previous bomb attacks on mosques by Hindus reportedly linked to right-wing group Bajrang Dal, according to the newspaper.
The Bajrang Dal is among a group of nationalist organizations that have vowed to protect India's Hindu identity.
Four alleged members died while making bombs in western India earlier this year, the newspaper said.
But its parent organisation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, denied any Hindu organisation was involved.
"One cannot conclude that Hindu organizations are behind the blasts in Malegaon just because they occurred at a Muslim shrine," VHP leader Praveen Togadia told reporters according to the Press Trust of India.
S. Chandrasekharan, analyst at India's South Asia Analysis Group, said it would be a "major watershed" if Hindus were behind the attacks but warned that little had been unearthed so far by the inquiry.
"It's the first time the majority community would have retaliated in the same form. It would be a serious matter for the country if it's proved," the analyst said.
Hindus are the majority of India's 1.1 billion population, with Muslims numbering 130 million.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in