Indian investigators have made their first breakthrough in the investigation into the Oct. 29 New Delhi bombings, linking the attacks to Kashmiri rebel groups, intelligence officials said yesterday.
The army arrested a suspected Kashmiri militant who implicated himself in the bombings, which killed 60 people, during his "sustained interrogation," a senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
An army spokesman, Colonel D.K. Badola, confirmed the arrest of Ghulam Mohammad Mohiudin, but would not give any details.
"We have arrested him and after interrogation he was handed over to the [New] Delhi police," he said.
The suspect told investigators that he had been a member of Hizb-ul Mujahedeen, a militant organization fighting Indian security forces in India's portion of Kashmir, but had recently joined the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, according to the intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of his sensitive position.
Lashkar was widely believed to have been behind the attacks, but denied any involvement, saying it does not target civilians.
A little-known Kashmiri group, Islamic Inquilab Mahaz, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The official said the interrogation was recorded on video, but provided no further details.
The suspect was arrested on Sunday in Jammu-Kashmir state and handed over to New Delhi police Tuesday night, the official said.
According to the Hindu newspaper, the suspect told interrogators he helped scout the location of one of the blasts and that the attacks, which targeted two crowded markets and a bus, were a combined operation by several Kashmiri rebel groups.
The suspect reportedly said he was recruited because he was familiar with New Delhi.
He said he was contacted by three Lashkar operatives, including two Kashmiris, who scouted out crowded markets before hiring an auto-rickshaw and planting the bomb in the Paharganj market, the report said.
The newspaper was vague about whether the suspect accompanied them to Paharganj or found out about it secondhand.
Islamic rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for independence for the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir from predominantly Hindu India, or its merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan. More than 66,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
India has often accused Pakistan of aiding and arming the militants at training camps on the Pakistani side of Kashmir -- a charge Pakistan denies.
Both nations claim all of Kashmir and have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory, which is divided between them by a ceasefire line.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS