AHMEDABAD, July 28: Police raided the home of an American citizen in Mumbai and seized a computer from which an e-mail claiming responsibility for bombings that killed 45 people in western India was believed to have been sent, officials said on Monday.
The 48-year-old American has not been detained, said Kirit Sonawane, a police officer involved in the raid. The man is so far not a suspect, police said.
Anti-terror police also arrested an underworld figure in Ahmedabad with apparent ties to a banned Muslim group and were determining whether he had any connection to the weekend attack in the city, said deputy police chief Ashish Bhatia.
At least 16 bombs tore through Ahmedabad around dusk Saturday, killing 45 people and wounding 161 others, said state Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas. It was the second series of blasts in India in two days.
An obscure Islamic militant group took credit for the Ahmedabad attack.
“In the name of Allah the Indian Mujahideen strike again! Do whatever you can, within five minutes from now, feel the terror of death!” said an e-mail from the group sent to several Indian television stations minutes before the blasts began.
The e-mail’s subject line said: “Await five minutes for the revenge of Gujarat,” an apparent reference to 2002 riots in the western state that left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.
The historic city of Ahmedabad was the scene of much of the 2002 violence.—AP
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