Police defused 18 bombs found near the main diamond markets in the city of Surat and issued a sketch of a young man believed to be linked to one of two explosives-filled cars discovered there.
The announcement on Tuesday came as authorities in a Mumbai suburb probed ties to a series of blasts over the weekend that killed 42 people and wounded 183 in Ahmadabad, about 280km north of Surat. An obscure Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for the Ahmadabad attack.
“I request you not to go to crowded places unnecessarily,” Surat Police Commissioner R.M.S. Brar told the public during a news conference, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Authorities said four cars — two used in Saturday’s Ahmadabad attack and the two found in Surat on Tuesday — were stolen this month from a Mumbai suburb, Navi Mumbai.
“Once we find the people who stole the cars, it will give us further clues about the blasts,” Navi Mumbai police chief Ramrao Wagh said.
Police said they believe the bombers used Navi Mumbai as the headquarters to plan the attack because they believed their activities would likely go undetected in the nondescript suburb.
India has been hit repeatedly by bombings in recent years. Nearly all have been blamed on Islamic rebels, who allegedly want to provoke violence between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority, although officials rarely offer hard evidence implicating specific groups.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring state of Rajasthan, police defused three crude bombs hidden inside plastic containers in a village about 300km north of Jaipur, said Harilal Sharma, a senior police official.
The latest developments come just days after 22 bombs tore through the historic city of Ahmadabad in Gujarat state in western India on Saturday.
The death toll has been lowered to 42 from 45 because several cases were reported twice amid the confusion, said H.P. Singh, a senior Ahmadabad police officer.
Authorities were also investigating on Tuesday the computer of a 48-year-old US citizen living in Mumbai to find out if an e-mail claiming responsibility for the attack was sent from it, or if unknown attackers accessed his wireless Internet connection.
Police seized Kenneth Haywood’s computer on Monday after tracing an e-mail claiming responsibility for the attack to the machine.
Police said on Tuesday that Haywood was not a suspect and it appeared the bombers had accessed his wireless network connection to send the e-mail.
Singh said anyone on the two floors below Haywood’s 15th floor apartment could have accessed his network.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long
RSS