Explosives used by Kashmiri militants used in train bombings

A powerful explosive called RDX, often used by Islamic militants fighting in India’s part of Kashmir, was used in the Mumbai train bombings, an investigator said today.

Indian officials have linked last week’s train bombings, which killed 182 people, to neighbouring Pakistan, which has denied having a hand in the blasts.

The use of RDX explosives is a hallmark of bombings by Islamic militant groups, some of them Pakistan-based, who have long been fighting to wrest part of Muslim-majority Kashmir from predominantly Hindu India.

India accuses mostly Islamic Pakistan of materially aiding the rebels. Pakistan says it only offers them moral and diplomatic support. Both countries claim all of Kashmir, which is divided between the nuclear-armed countries and has triggered two wars between them since their independence from Britain in 1947.

India’s suspicions have prompted New Delhi to suspend a two-year peace process with Pakistan, and to demand a “firm commitment” from Islamabad on reining in the militants.

“The explosive used was a mixture of ammonium nitrate, RDX and fuel oil,” KP Raghuvanshi, who leads the anti-terrorist squad investigating the bombings, told reporters.

Raghuvanshi declined to speculate on who might have carried out the train attacks, saying only that investigators had fanned out across India to track down leads.

Mumbai Police Chief A N Roy had said earlier that officials believe the breakthrough in the probe will come soon.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday said India’s two-year-old peace process with Pakistan cannot move forward if terrorism “aided and abetted from outside” continues to claim lives in India, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.