Arrests in Mumbai train bombings rise to six

Indian police said Wednesday that the Mumbai train bombers had probably left the country after the number of arrests in the inquiry rose to six. Jamir Sheikh, 31, and Sohail Sheikh, 38, were arrested late Tuesday after being questioned for several days over the blasts that killed 183 and injured more than 800. They were being probed for providing "support" to the bombers.
Jamir Sheikh, who ran a key-cutting shop in Mumbai, and Sohail Sheikh, a chemical engineer, were allegedly trained on how to make bombs in Pakistan in 2004/5, additional commissioner of police Jayjit Singh told AFP.
"They are from the core group that gave support to the terrorists," Singh alleged. "They had training in 2004/5. They told us and we have evidence for it. That was explosives training, how to make bombs. There will be more arrests."
The men were being questioned in Mumbai and the DNA newspaper said they had allegedly confessed to being members of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Police have said that the seven co-ordinated blasts that ripped through packed first-class train carriages on July 11 bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba but have stopped short of directly blaming the group.
"We don't have conclusive proof but we believe it's true that the people who have done it are out of the country," said Singh. Singh declined to name any country. Police have also said others arrested in the inquiry had links with Nepal and Bangladesh.
Indian media said the two arrested men were allegedly part of the same militant cell led by Tanvir Ansari, a doctor, who has been accused of conspiracy and was under suspicion of having trained abroad in handling arms, ammunition and making bombs. He was arrested earlier this week.
The two men were suspected to have visited Pakistan through Iran and went on a 28-day training camp to learn how to handle sophisticated weapons and manufacture bombs, the Press Trust of India said, quoting unnamed sources.
Sohail Sheikh's family, at their home in the western Indian city of Pune, denied he was linked to terrorism and told reporters he had travelled to Iran to investigate the dry fruit business.
"He was showing me how to do my exercises when we first heard about the blasts. How can he have had anything to do with them?" his mother Hazra told the Hindustan Times. Jamir Sheikh, a keen footballer and married with a young son, Osama, had links with a banned militant group. His mother Raeesa Begum told the newspaper she had tried to make him break ties with the group.