Five suspected of terror links arrested in Guwahati

INDIA: Five Muslim men in India’s northeast were arrested on suspicion of links to terrorist groups, police officials said on Tuesday.

Police said they would investigate whether the men were planning any terrorist attacks or were connected to the train bombings in Mumbai last Tuesday that killed 182 people and injured nearly 900 others.

“We have a strong suspicion that these five people were linked to some Islamist fundamentalist groups or even terrorist outfits and hence various police and intelligence agencies are now interrogating them,” police spokesperson Rajen Singh told AFP.

Police picked up the five, all from eastern Indian states, from a hotel in the main city of Guwahati in Assam state on Monday and they were formally arrested on Tuesday. “The kingpin is a Muslim man but he was using a Hindu name and had twice visited a Hindu temple in Guwahati during the last few days,” Singh said.

“We want to know if there were any plans to target the temple,” he said.

“We are (also) probing if the five men have any links with the serial bombings in Mumbai, (and had) other plans to target the Guwahati railway station,” the official said.

Police in Mumbai have yet to arrest anyone in connection with the blasts.

In neighboring Tripura state, a team from Mumbai’s anti-terrorism squad was also interrogating 11 Muslim men on Tuesday for any links with the Mumbai blasts.

Guwahati, Wednesday, AFP.