Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (73141)	7/14/2006 9:53:59 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 361219

India: Pakistan 'elements' backed bombers By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer BOMBAY, India - India's prime minister said Friday that the Bombay train bombers were "supported by elements across the border" — a clear reference to Pakistan — which he said must rein in terrorists before a peace process can move ahead. Pakistan rejected the allegations and called for the peace process to continue. The comments by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came as Indian authorities named a third suspect in Tuesday's deadly attack and as investigators cast a wide net in their hunt for the assailants, scrutinizing a cross-border Islamic militant network along with smaller homegrown groups. Speaking days after a series of carefully coordinated bombs ripped through evening rush-hour trains, killing at least 200, Singh said Pakistan assured India two years ago that its territory "would not be used to promote, encourage, aid and abet terrorism. "That assurance has to be fulfilled before the peace process and other processes progress," he said. Investigators are certain that terror cells are operating in Bombay and many other parts of India, said Singh, after arriving Friday on his first trip to the city since the attack. He was expected to meet with bombing victims and local investigators. "We are also certain that these terror modules are instigated, inspired and supported by elements across the border, without which they cannot act with such devastating effect," he said. "They clearly want to destroy our growing economic strength, to destroy our unity and provoke communal incidents." After coming to the brink of war in 2002, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan launched a peace process that has brought them closer, yet concrete agreement on the most pressing and longstanding issue — the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir — has been minimal. Earlier Friday, Bombay Police Commissioner A.N. Roy said a man known only as Rahil was the third person sought in connection with the blasts. The Indian government's Anti-Terror Squad released photos Thursday night of two other suspects, Sayyad Zabiuddin and Zulfeqar Fayyaz. Their nationalities were not given, nor was it clear where the photos of the young, bearded men originated. Investigators gave few other details. Since the blasts, officials have been pointing to the Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which operates in Kashmir. Many cited the presumed use of RDX high explosives as evidence of Lashkar's involvement. But Lashkar denied any role, and the Press Trust of India news agency reported that forensic tests were indicating the use of lower-grade industrial explosives, such as dynamite, or even simple chemical explosives, such as ammonium nitrate. Officials were quoted by the news agency as saying the use of such common explosives would suggest that smaller, local groups carried out the blasts — not more sophisticated and better-equipped networks, such as Lashkar. An Indian Home Ministry official said that among the leads investigators were pursuing was the possible involvement of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India, which may have been aided by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. The official requested anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing. Pakistan dismissed the allegation. "This is baseless, and we reject it," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told The Associated Press in Islamabad. Pakistan consistently denies stoking terror in India or fanning militancy in divided Kashmir. The rivals each claim the entire territory and have fought two wars over it since independence from Britain in 1947. The Bombay police chief said the two suspects named Thursday had been on the run since mid-May, when authorities arrested three suspected Muslim insurgents and seized large quantities of arms, ammunition and plastic explosives after a long highway chase in western India's Maharashtra state. Bombay is its capital. News reports at that time had said the arrested men were Lashkar-e-Tayyaba members. Lashkar has in the past staged near-simultaneous explosions in Indian cities, including an October attack in New Delhi that killed more than 60 people. The group also was named in a 2001 attack on India's parliament. On Thursday, a man claiming to represent al-Qaida reportedly claimed the terror network had set up a wing in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where Islamic militants have been fighting for years for independence from predominantly Hindu India or union with mostly Muslim Pakistan. There was no way to immediately verify the al-Qaida claim. If true, it would be the first time Osama bin Laden's network has claimed to have spread into Indian territory. ___ Associated Press reporters Mujtaba Ali Ahmad in Srinagar contributed to this story.