Kashmir militants claim Delhi blasts

NEW DELHI - An obscure Kashmiri militant group claimed responsibility on Sunday for bomb blasts in India's capital which killed at least 59 people, but analysts said it was probably a front for a larger Pakistan-based group.

New Delhi has so far refused to speculate on who was behind Saturday's triple blasts, but security experts see the hand of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Force of the Pure) behind the attacks, in an attempt to derail the peace process between India and Pakistan.

The explosions took place within half an hour in markets packed with shoppers just days before major Hindu and Muslim festivals. Many of the victims were women and children.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed terrorists, but said it was too early to say who was behind the attacks.

On Sunday, the Islami Inqilabi Mahaz (Islamic Revolutionary Group), telephoned local newspapers in Indian Kashmir to claim responsibility for the blasts and warn of more to come.

Delhi Police said they were checking the claim.

"This is a very old organisation, it was formed in 1996 and has not been very active recently. They are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba," Joint Commissioner of Police Karnal Singh told a news conference.

Singh denied local media reports that police had detained 20 people. "We have only questioned some people during investigations. We will crack this soon," he said, adding that the death toll stood at 59 while 210 were wounded.

Investigators were working on several leads but they could not be made public, Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said after a cabinet meeting.

Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based expert on terrorism, said the blasts were almost certainly carried out by groups from the subcontinent but inspired by the methods of al Qaeda.

"It is very likely the attacks were meant to affect the peace process between Pakistan and India," he said.

But Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said militants could not drive a wedge in the peace moves.

"The government of Pakistan and government of India and the whole world want that both nations should be friendly and solve their problems peacefully and amicably," Ahmed told India's NDTV news channel.

The blasts came as Indian and Pakistani officials meeting in Islamabad agreed to open their Kashmir frontier to help victims of this month's devastating earthquake, the latest step in a peace process opposed by Kashmiri separatists.

India has blamed previous attacks on Pakistan-based militants. But the country is also racked by scores of revolts and in May two blasts blamed on Sikh separatists killed one person and wounded dozens in Delhi.

Delhi's chief minister appealed for people to stay away from public areas for the next few days ahead of the major Hindu celebration of Diwali, or the festival of lights, on Tuesday and the Islamic Eid al-Fitr a few days later.

The markets where the blasts occurred opened on Sunday but were almost empty.

- REUTERS