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CALCUTTA, Jan 24 (AFP) - Calcutta police said Thursday they had arrested a dozen Indian Muslims on charges connected to the bloody attack outside the American Center here.

Police Inspector D. Chatterjee said the suspects were arrested Wednesday evening at a train station outside Calcutta as they returned from a pilgrimage in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The arrests were made on information provided by other suspects interrogated after a police sweep that followed the Tuesday morning shooting outside the American Center, Chatterjee said.

Unidentified gunmen had ridden up to the Center on motorbikes and opened fire with AK-47s at several dozen police guards changing duty. Four policemen were killed and around 20 people injured.

The shooting came less than six weeks after a deadly attack on India's parliament in New Delhi triggered an explosive escalation in tensions with rival Pakistan, with India blaming Pakistan-based militants for carrying out the assault.

Chatterjee said a motorcycle that might have been used in the Calcutta shooting had been seized from a Muslim cleric north of the city.

There have been several anonymous calls claiming responsibility for the attack, with New Delhi highlighting one from a Dubai-based man, Farhan Malik, who has alleged links to Pakistani intelligence and the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, a Pakistan-based group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Police on Wednesday said at least two Bangladeshi nationals had also been picked up and the government in Dhaka summoned the Indian envoy to express its concern.

"Unfounded allegations will only detract from efforts aimed at successfully nabbing the perpetrators of the Calcutta incident," Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shamser Mobin Chowdhury said.

Initially, four gunmen on two motorcycles were reported to have carried out the attack, although detectives said examination of video recorded by the American Center's external security cameras showed only two men on one motorbike.

"The camera tapes have produced vital clues and now we are zeroing in our investigations," Calcutta's chief police detective Saumen Mitra said.

"This attack was clearly against the American Center and not the policemen guarding the building," said Mitra, without elaborating.

US officials have questioned whether the Center was indeed the prime target, pointing out that no attempt was made to enter or damage the building.

"We are heading in a positive direction and in a few days the picture will be clear," said Calcutta Police Deputy Commissioner Banibroto Basu, a member of the investigating team.

More than 50 people have been picked up for questioning in the wake of the attack and a team of federal investigators flew in from New Delhi on Wednesday to assist with the probe.

An unidentified official from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also flew in, although his precise role has yet to be clarified.

FBI director Robert Mueller was in New Delhi at the time of the attack.

"We are working nicely with the state government," the US consul general in Calcutta, Christopher Sandrolini, said.

Officials said raids were still being mounted on homes and Islamic schools on the city's outskirts in one of the biggest police crackdowns seen in Calcutta.

The American Center, which is several kilometers (miles) from the US Consulate, houses a library, press office and commercial office, and is staffed mainly by Indian nationals with some American diplomats.

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