Indian police hunt militants after Delhi gunbattle

Posted 09 22 2008 7:29PM

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Police launched an intense search across the Indian capital Saturday for two suspected Islamic extremists who escaped during a dramatic gunbattle in which two militants and a police officer died.

The two militants killed during Friday's shootout in a Muslim area of New Delhi included one of the leaders of a shadowy group responsible for a series of bomb attacks including blasts in the city a week ago, officials said.

The massive hunt for the two militant suspects came as police said the group that claimed responsibility was supported by the Pakistan-based Islamic rebel group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Lashkar-e-Taiba "was providing total support to SIMI (the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India) and the Indian Mujahideen," Karnal Singh, joint commissioner of Delhi police, told reporters.

The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the blasts which ripped through busy shopping areas of New Delhi last Saturday and left at least 22 dead and around 100 wounded. Five bombs exploded while three were defused.

It marked the first time Indian police have linked last Saturday's serial blasts to the Pakistan-based group which is battling Indian troops in disputed Kashmir.

In the past, India has blamed the vast majority of previous attacks on Indian soil on groups either based in, or directly supported by Pakistan.

Friday's gunbattle erupted in Jamia Nagar in the capital's south when police working from a tip-off found at least five armed Muslim men holed up in an apartment in a maze of narrow streets.

Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, one of the police force's top officers, died in hospital from gunshot wounds, police commissioner Y.S. Dadhwal said, adding one suspected militant arrested at the scene was being interrogated.

One of the dead militants was Indian Mujahideen leader "Atif alias Bashir", who was "linked with the blasts all over the country," the commissioner said.

Detectives also arrested a suspected aide of Atif's at a New Delhi TV studio late Friday.

The Indian Mujahideen first came to public attention last November following serial blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in which at least 13 people died.

The group has said it was also responsible for a string of five bomb blasts in July in the western city of Ahmedabad that killed at least 45 people.

The group sent an email to media outlets after blasts in May in the northern tourist city of Jaipur that left 63 dead in which it announced it had launched an "open war" against India for supporting the United States, and warned of more attacks against tourist sites.

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said a massive hunt was underway across the national capital for the two militant suspects.

Later officers told a city court they were hunting for seven other militants over the Delhi blasts.

The Delhi shootout came a day after the government unveiled security measures to tackle what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said were "vast gaps" in intelligence gathering.

Singh said India had to face up to the growing involvement of home-grown militants in attacks.