Two suspects in court blasts arrested

Lucknow: Police in northern Uttar Pradesh state yesterday announced the arrest of two suspected Islamist leaders in connection with serial blasts outside courts in three northern cities that left 13 people dead.

The Special Task Force Officers described the two suspects as top state leaders of the banned Bangladesh-based militant group Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI). "These are the people who directly conducted all the operations. These were planned in June this year," senior state police official Brij Lal told reporters in the state capital Lucknow.

Final shape

"On November 17 all these people met in Lucknow to give a final shape to the operation."

Another suspect in the November 23 bombings had been picked up in Kashmir, where a separatist movement has raged for almost two decades, the Uttar Pradesh police said.

Srinagar police said they were working with their Lucknow counterparts to round up suspects but did not confirm any arrests.

One of the men arrested in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, Mohammed Tariq, was the state head of HuJI, police said.

"All blasts in the state take place after his approval," said Lal.

Police said Tariq came in touch with the militants during his education in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar and that he was actively involved in terrorist activities since 2005.

Detonators

Police said investigation by the state anti-terror force led them to the suspects, adding that they confessed under interrogation. The two men were also carrying explosives and detonators at the time of their arrest early yesterday at a railway station some 30km from Lucknow, police said. The explosions outside local courts in Lucknow, the holy city of Varanasi and in Faizabad, were aimed at lawyers, police believe.

Some 40 people were also wounded in the blasts.

A threatening email sent to television channels just minutes before the blasts accused lawyers in the state of beating up people falsely accused by the police of terrorism and of refusing to defend them.

The lawyers had repeatedly refused to defend Islamist militants facing charges of orchestrating terror attacks.

Analysts say Islamist extremist groups could also be attempting to stoke religious tensions to derail an India-Pakistan peace process over the disputed region of Kashmir which both nations occupy in part but claim in full.

- With inputs from agencies