Police foil attack on New Delhi tourist site

INDIA: Indian police arrested three suspected Islamic militants armed with explosives near a popular New Delhi tourist site on Thursday, police said.

The three, a Pakistani national and two Kashmiris, were arrested outside the Dilli Haat crafts market in the capital, said New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat.

The men were carrying a package of high-powered explosives, a detonator and a hand grenade, he said, adding that they were believed to be members of the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant group.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was blamed for a series of bombings in New Delhi in 2005 on the eve of the Hindu festival of lights that killed 62 people.

The group is one of more than a dozen Islamic insurgent groups fighting to oust predominantly Hindu India from the Muslim-majority Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Kashmir is divided between India and mostly Muslim Pakistan, with both claiming it in its entirety.

New Delhi, Friday, AP