Indian police arrested 10 members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India in connection with bombings that killed at least 50 people in the western state of Gujarat last month.
Nine of the people were arrested in Gujarat, while the “mastermind,” Abu Bashir, was arrested in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, H.P. Singh, joint police commissioner, said by phone from Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city.
The suspects have been charged with “waging a war against the state” and murder, P.C. Pandey, director-general of police, told reporters.
The July 26 attack in Ahmedabad, comprising 16 bombs, came a day after a similar attack in Bangalore that killed two and about two months after an attack in Jaipur. An Islamist group calling itself the “Indian Mujahedeen” claimed the Gujarat attack was in revenge for violence between Hindus and Muslims in 2002, an e-mail sent to the press said. The group also threatened more attacks.
“These arrests may give leads to other blasts,” including the Jaipur attack, the state-run broadcaster Doordarshan quoted Pandy as saying.
“Indian Mujahedeen” is “another form” of the Students Islamic Movement, he said. Members of the outfit were trained in jungles in the southern state of Kerala two years ago and in Gujarat in January, he said.
The Ahmedabad attack comprised a series of small explosions across the city designed to create panic, Doordarshan quoted Ashish Bhatia, joint police commissioner of the crime branch, as saying. A more powerful car bomb was then exploded at the city’s Civil Hospital as the injured sought help. The blast killed 29.
The bombs in Ahmedabad, a city of 4.5 million, were all timed using digital watches to detonate between 6:30pm and 8pm.
The attacks mirrored nine near-simultaneous explosions in Jaipur on May 13 that killed at least 60 people as the same chemical, ammonium nitrate, and timers were used, Singh said in an interview on Aug. 4. Bicycles were also strapped with explosives in Jaipur and Ahmedabad, he said.
India has failed to bring a single prosecution regarding 16 attacks in three years, as investigators have been hampered by a lack of resources, political meddling and squabbling between state and federal agencies.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS