BOMBAY/ISLAMABAD, 1 October 2006 — Bombay’s chief of police Anami Narayan Roy accused Pakistan’s intelligence service yesterday of plotting and executing the July 11 suburban train blasts that killed at least 207 and injured another 700. Pakistan quickly denied the allegation.

“It’s becoming a habit of Indian policymakers to accuse Pakistan without any substantial evidence,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told Arab News after Roy made his comments. “Time and again we have been asking India to come forward with evidence so that we can hunt terrorists.”

Meanwhile, agents of India’s Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested early yesterday morning Mohammed Naved on suspicion that he was the triggerman who detonated the bomb that exploded on the train near the Khar suburb.

On Friday four suspects were arrested, putting the total number that have been detained in connection with the attacks at 15. Twelve of the suspects, police say, were directly involved with planting and detonating the devices.

Speaking at a crowded press conference here, Roy charged that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) planned the attack, which was then carried out by the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with the help of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). He also accused ISI of providing the RDX explosives that were used in the terrorist attacks.

At the press conference, Roy provided more details of how Indian authorities think the attacks were planned. “Money for the serial blasts was received by one of the prime accused, Faisal Sheikh from the Gulf, from alleged LeT operative Rizwan Dawari,” he said. “The money was sent to Dawari by LeT from Pakistan.”

Roy said that police recovered foreign currency worth $6,933 from Faisal, who confessed to receiving about six million rupees ($130,548) from Dawari. Elaborating further, Roy said that Ethesham Siddiqui had planted the bomb on the Mira Road train; Kamaluddin Ahmed attacked the train at Matunga; Faisal Sheikh struck at Jogeshwari; and Naved struck at Khar.

The police chief said that police have completed the investigation into the attacks, but follow-up investigations would continue and more arrests were likely. Indian authorities believe that Azam Cheema, a ranking LeT militant, was running a terrorist training camp in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. To execute the train blasts, 11 Pakistani terrorists allegedly entered India through Nepal and Bangladesh. While seven of them escaped back to Pakistan. Of the remaining, two were killed, one of them, Salim of Lahore, was killed in the blasts at Mahim while another died in a shootout with police at Antop Hill. The whereabouts of the two are not known.

Roy said that the terrorists had manufactured the bombs using pressure cookers at Chembur and stored them at the Bandra residence of Faisal Sheikh. A team of two terrorists, a Pakistani and an Indian, were assigned to plant bombs on each train.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil also said here yesterday morning that the mastermind behind the blasts is “across the border” and that the government had strong and substantial evidence to prove its stand. Patil claimed that the government had strong evidence of Pakistani organizations’ involvement in the terrorist acts. “We will prove it at the proper time”.

Of the four men arrested on Friday, suspect Mohammed Majid was allegedly an active member of a LeT sleeper cell and one of the plotters behind July’s train attacks. The Bombay police are also hunting for a SIMI activist, identified only as Junaid, believed to be another key suspect.

Tasnim Aslam, of Pakistan’s Foreign Office, said that India should work more with its neighbor in the investigation.

“Recently our president held a very useful meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana and the two leaders agreed to resolve many issues,” said Aslam, saying that high-ranking officials in both countries had agreed in the past to share counterterrorism intelligence.

After the blasts, India canceled peace talks with Pakistan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused the government of Pakistan of supporting the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks.

Indian officials have promised to resolve this case in a more timely fashion than the ongoing 1993 blasts trials, where only in the past week some of the suspects have been found guilty and sentenced.