Enemies for years, neighbors India and Pakistan have been working hard to repair ties after an attack on Mumbai in 2008 — blamed by New Delhi on Pakistan-based militants working in collusion with Pakistan’s spy agency — derailed peace talks. Islamabad has denied involvement in the attacks.
The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been criticized for not sufficiently stepping up security after the Mumbai attacks, where gunmen armed with bombs went on a rampage for nearly three days killing 166 people.
The arrested suspects belonged to militant group the Indian Mujahideen and were involved in a series of bomb blasts and a shooting near Delhi’s Jama Masjid last year, Delhi police said.
“All the members of the Indian Mujahideen terrorist module were subjected to intensive interrogation,” the statement said, adding that the suspects had admitted involvement in a blast at German Bakery in Pune city last year and another at Chinnaswamy cricket stadium in Bangalore.
In the blast at the German Bakery in February last year, attackers left a bomb under a table that exploded, killing 17 people. Ten people were injured when two bombs went off outside the Bangalore cricket stadium in April 2010.
In the mosque attack in September 2010, two Taiwanese visitors who were part of a film crew were wounded when two men on a motorbike opened fire and a small car exploded.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram confirmed the arrests at a news conference, adding that an “investigation is still underway” into the actions of the six men.
The arrests were made across the country and police also seized automatic weapons, handguns and explosive material in the raids.
A number of smaller attacks have hit the country since the Mumbai attack, but very few of the cases have been solved. The Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for numerous bomb attacks in Indian cities in recent years, most recently for a blast outside the Delhi High Court in September which left 15 dead.
The US State Department has designated the group a terrorist organization, noting its “close ties” with Pakistan-based militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
