India blames Islamic militants for Mumbai bombings

INDIA yesterday blamed Islamic militant groups for twin car bombings in Mumbai which killed 50 people and left 154 wounded in the worst terrorist attack in a decade in the country's financial heart.

The bombs planted in two taxis exploded minutes apart on Monday, ripping through a crowded jewellery market and in front of a colonial-era tourist attraction, the Gateway of India.

Police said they were focusing their investigation on Muslim militants and were interrogating several people, including the driver of the taxi that exploded at the Gateway of India.

The Indian Express newspaper said police are hunting two women who hired the taxi to go to the Gateway.

They got out of the taxi, purportedly for lunch, leaving a bag inside. The driver also was strolling outside when the car blew up, the newspaper said.

The driver of the second cab at the Zaveri Bazaar died in the explosion.

At least five other explosions in Mumbai in the last six months have been blamed on the pro-Pakistan Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group and its ally, the Students' Islamic Movement of India, a militant group outlawed in 2001.

"The people responsible before appear to be the people responsible now," Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said after inspecting damage caused by the bombings.

He said Lashkar-e-Tayyaba's involvement "raises doubts about our neighbour", a reference to India's nuclear rival, Pakistan.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is one of more than a dozen Islamic rebel groups that have been fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir since 1989, seeking independence or its merger with Pakistan. India has often accused Pakistan of aiding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and of sponsoring cross-border terrorism, allegations that Islamabad denies. Pakistan also banned the group last year.

Mr Advani said Pakistan's "war of terrorism" was directed against the entire country.

"There is an attempt to destabilise the whole of India," Mr Advani said.

Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi also seemed to blame Pakistan. "There are terrorists coming from outside."

Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed dismissed Advani's remarks as "baseless allegations against Pakistan".

"Pakistan has never supported terrorism in India. We are against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and this is the basic principle of our foreign policy," Mr Ahmed said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bombings seemed aimed more at the city than any particular religious or ethnic group and failed to arouse communal passions, instead uniting Muslims and Hindus in their grief.

"Even after the blasts, both Hindus and Muslims were together in the rescue," said Sohail Rokadia, a Muslim community leader and businessman. "If the aim was to create a distance between the two communities, the perpetrators have failed."

Women wailed as the body of 19-year-old tourist guide Krishna Thakur, wrapped in a white shroud and marigold flowers, was taken away for cremation.

A few miles away at a Muslim burial ground, mourners prayed as the bodies of Sadique Ahmad, 42, and his nephew, Mohammed Sohail Latif Wadiwala, 21, were lowered into their graves.

A group of 200 Muslims waving the national flag and peace banners marched in Mumbai to condemn the attack. Mumbai's stock market surged yesterday to a 30-month closing high, wiping out Monday's losses.