NEW DELHI/CALCUTTA, 25 January — India arrested 12 Muslims returning from a religious congregation from neighboring Bangladesh late Wednesday in connection with Tuesday’s shooting outside the US Cultural Center in Calcutta that left four policemen dead.
The men were arrested at a train station outside Calcutta on their return from Bangladesh, Inspector D. Chatterjee said. The arrests were made on information provided by other suspects interrogated after a police swoop, Chatterjee said.
More than 70 people have been picked up for questioning in the wake of the attack in which unidentified gunmen rode up to the center on a motorbike and opened fire with AK-47s at several dozen police guards changing duty. At lest 20 people were injured. The shooting came less than six weeks after a deadly attack on India’s parliament in New Delhi that triggered an explosive escalation in tensions with rival Pakistan, with India blaming Pakistan-based groups for carrying out the assault.
Chatterjee said a motorcycle that might have been used in the Calcutta shooting had been seized from a Muslim religious leader. There have been several anonymous calls claiming responsibility for the attack, with New Delhi highlighting one from a Dubai-based man, Farhan Malik, who has alleged links to Pakistani intelligence and the Harkatul Jihad Islami, a Pakistan-based group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Police on Wednesday said at least two Bangladeshi nationals had also been picked up, prompting the government in Dhaka to summon the Indian envoy to express concern.
"Unfounded allegations will only detract from efforts aimed at successfully nabbing the perpetrators of the Calcutta incident," Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shamser Mobin Chowdhury said.
Chowdhury said Dhaka was concerned that attempts were being made by a section of the Indian media "to the effect that a branch of a terrorist outfit using Bangladesh territory and some Bangladeshis were involved in the incident." He said Bangladesh had made it repeatedly clear that it would not allow its territory to be used for any "terrorist action against another country."
Indian Ambassador Moti Lal Tripathi told the private UNB news agency that the Indian government would share information with Bangladesh after the investigation was completed and that media reports did not reflect government views. "Print media in India as in Bangladesh are free and media reports do not reflect government views," he said.
