Four youths arrested in Kashmir over Delhi court blast email

Sep 15, 2011, 7:15 GMT

New Delhi - Police in India-administered Kashmir have arrested four students suspected of sending an email claiming a militant group was responsible for the recent bomb blast in Delhi, news reports said Thursday.

The email was sent to the media hours after the September 7 blast at the Delhi High Court, claiming responsibility for the Harkat-ul-Jihadi (HUJI) militant group.

The toll rose to 14 Thursday with the death of another person injured. At least 70 people were hurt, of which 25 are still in hospital.

The four youths, all from Kishtwar town in Doda district, were arrested after the email was traced to them, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

High school students Shariq Ahmed and Abid Hussain were arrested on Wednesday while Hilal Amin and Amir Abbas, college students, were detained on Thursday, the report said.

They have been charged with criminal conspiracy and detained for questioning for six days, the Indian Express cited police sources as saying.

The boys claimed they did not write the email, but that it had been given to them on a pen drive, the report said, without providing further details.

'Some people have been arrested, but we do not want to disclose whatever progress we have made as it may hamper investigations,' Federal Home Secretary RK Singh told reporters in Delhi.

HUJI is a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group which Indian intelligence agencies suspect of carrying out terrorist attacks in India.

Federal Home Minister P Chidambaram, addressing a meeting of police officers in Delhi, said Pakistan and Afghanistan remained the epicentre of terrorism, and militant groups based in Pakistan continued to target India.

Chidambaram said two attacks in the past two months - in Delhi and Mumbai - were blots on the government's record, and that combating terrorism remained a formidable challenge.