Blast e-mail suspect detained in Indian Kashmir

Source: AFP

SRINAGAR, India — Police in Indian Kashmir on Friday detained a man suspected of sending an e-mail claiming responsibility for a bomb at New Delhi's High Court that left 13 dead.

The unverified e-mail, which said the Pakistan-based militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) carried out Wednesday's attack, had been traced to a cybercafe in Kishtwar, near the Kashmiri city of Jammu.

"The person we were looking for -- the suspect who sent the e-mail -- has been located and taken into custody for questioning," Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.

Chidambaram said the suspect had been tracked down after questioning two brothers who owned the cybercafe and other people who had been using the facility around the time the e-mail was sent.

Federal investigators have yet to confirm whether the email was indeed from HuJI. Another claim of responsibility, apparently from a home-grown militant outfit called Indian Mujahideen, was sent to media on Thursday.

The United States describes HuJI as a terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda, and it has been accused of carrying out attacks in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

But the group has not been active in Muslim-majority Kashmir for years.

Wednesday's powerful blast ripped through a crowd of litigants queuing to enter the court complex in the heart of the Indian capital. A total of 13 people were killed, 11 on the spot and two more later dying in hospital from their injuries.

It was the first major attack on Indian soil since triple blasts in Mumbai on July 13 killed 26 people. It has still not been established who carried out those bombings.

The Delhi High Court had been targeted four months ago, when a low-intensity bomb exploded in the parking lot, causing no casualties and only minimal damage.

The probe into Wednesday's bombing is being run by the National Investigation Agency, a body set up in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Islamist gunmen that left 166 people dead.