India makes first arrest in textile town blast
Source: Reuters
MUMBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A Muslim man has been arrested on charges of planting one of three bombs that killed 32 people in a western Indian town last month, police said on Monday. The arrest is the first made in connection with the Sept. 8 attacks in the textile town of Malegaon where the bombs went off around a crowded mosque during Friday prayers. "We arrested one person a few days ago," P.S. Pasricha, police chief of the western state of Maharashtra, where Malegaon is located, told Reuters. Police said the arrest had been kept secret for the sake of investigations. "The arrested man is accused of planting one of the bombs," Pasricha said, adding they hoped to make more arrests on the basis of information provided by him. Malegaon, a Muslim-majority town, is 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub where Islamist terrorists bombed the city's packed rail network in July, killing 186 people. Police have so far released sketches of three suspects in the Malegaon attacks, two of whom they said had bought bicycles at local shops on which the bombs are believed to have been placed. The third was a man seen moving around suspiciously near the mosque before the explosion. No one has claimed responsibility for the Malegaon attacks. Police said they were still investigating the motive for the blasts.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
