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| No breakthrough in Mumbai investigation | | Police have yet to zero in on suspects | | From B L KAK
NEW DELHI, JULY 16: Even as at least 25 people have come forward with information about 'suspicious looking men', there is no breakthrough in the investigation in the Mumbai train attacks--five days after the July 11 rush-hour blasts.
It is official: Indian police on Sunday increased their huge intelligence trawl for suspects in the Mumbai train attacks. Clearly, this follows the mounting pressure on the police and intelligence agencies to nab those behind the blasts that killed 200-odd people and wounded nearly 950.
According to a private TV news channel, conflicting descriptions from different sources are making it difficult for the police to zero in on suspects. Police, official sources told EARLY TIMES on Sunday, had picked up hundreds of people from different areas of India’s financial capital for questioning, though most were released afterwards.
Media and public pressure has mounted on the Mumbai police to come up with results, with a number of TV debates showing members of the public venting anger at the alleged inability of the force to round up those responsible for the attacks. Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, however, insisted that the investigation was making “satisfactory” progress.
“I can assure you that we will book the culprits very soon,” he said in an interview with NDTV, adding: “We have 16 teams (investigating), they are going on proper lines.”
Investigators have been reported to have stated that the identity of the attackers may be “hazy” but the method employed bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist group with activities in Pakistan-held Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed for previous assaults on India.
A report in a multi-edition English daily on Sunday said that an outfit called the Lashkar-e-Qahhar -- which Indian security experts say is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba -- had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Mumbai-based activists from the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) are also suspected of having a role in the attacks. But both Lashkar-e-Taiba and SIMI have denied any part in the blasts.
The blasts were the worst in India since 1993 when 257 people died in a string of bomb attacks blamed on underworld figures and Islamic militants. The carnage has prompted Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to press leaders of the Group of Eight nations for greater cooperation in fighting terrorism in South Asia. Manmohan Singh meets leaders at the G8 summit in Saint Petersburg on Monday.
The July 11 blasts also took their toll on the India-Pakistan peace process with New Delhi taking a tough stand on the one hand and, on the other hand, calling off the Foreign Secretary-level talks. India has said that the blasts were carried out with help from ”elements across the border,” a charge rejected by Islamabad as "unsubstantiated.”
The talks, which had been tentatively slated for Thursday in New Delhi, were meant to review progress in the slow-moving peace process. “Every time something like this (attacks) happens it undermines public confidence ... negative public opinion is created, anger is generated,” Indian Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, has stated.
Saran, however, added that India was “committed to pursuing a policy of peace and friendship with Pakistan. Islamabad has said that the talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours, which began in 2004, “must be continued and carried forward”.
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