Police identify scooter used in Mumbai blast

Detectives have been questioning people with links to underworld gangs as they scramble for a breakthrough in the Mumbai bombings that killed 18 people, officials said yesterday. Home secretary R K Singh told reporters in New Delhi that “people are being questioned based on our previous databases and previous known linkages” to help find those responsible for Wednesday’s deadly rush-hour blasts. Singh’s department has said two suspected members of the Indian Mujahideen militant group, arrested in Mumbai last week on suspicion of involvement in bomb attacks in the western city of Ahmedabad in 2008, have been quizzed.Others questioned about the three co-ordinated blasts included people with links to underworld gangs and “anti-social elements” in Mumbai, the Press Trust of India news agency said, quoting an unnamed anti-terrorism squad officer.“We believe we are moving in the right direction,” the officer added. Singh, meanwhile, said police had identified the owner of a scooter in which explosives were hidden at one of the three bomb sites. Asked about possible “cross-border” involvement in the attacks — meaning Pakistani militants — the politician said detectives were following up on an e-mail “which originated elsewhere”, without elaborating. Investigators have been scrambling for a breakthrough in the case, amid fears torrential downpours that have hit India’s financial and entertainment capital since the blasts may have washed away vital forensic clues. Teams of detectives are scouring hours of grainy security camera footage taken from the bomb sites in south and south central Mumbai to try to assemble a complete picture of what happened. Forensic examination of debris has already indicated that the bombs, hidden in the crowded streets, used ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser ingredient commonly used in improvised explosive devices. On Thursday evening, the head of the Maharashtra state Anti-Terrorist, Squad, Rakesh Maria, admitted the seasonal rainstorms had hindered the scientists.Devices using ammonium nitrate have been used in the past by the Indian Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks across the country in recent years. Maria declined to speculate on who was responsible and struck a note of caution about reports that a severed head found at one of the scenes and a body embedded with wires suggested a suicide attack. “We are not confining ourselves to any one group. At the moment all possibilities are being examined,” he told reporters.