Police suspect Bangladeshi hand in Jaipur blasts

By Bappa Majumdar

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Police probing bombings in Jaipur that killed 63 people said on Friday that new evidence pointed increasingly towards Indian Islamists backed by a Bangladeshi militant group as being behind the blasts.

Nine bombs, all strapped to bicycles, ripped through a crowded shopping area in the popular tourist city on Tuesday evening. Another 216 people were wounded.

Investigators said the attack bore hallmarks of the Bangladeshi militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI), suspected to be behind several previous blasts in India.

"The modus operandi of the entire operation, the way the bombs were manufactured and concealed in bags are very similar to the way HuJI operates," Pankaj Singh, a senior police officer in Rajasthan where the attacks happened, told Reuters.

"It is very possible that Indian groups helped them," Singh said in Jaipur.

Rajasthan's Parliamentary Affairs Minister R.S. Rathore said on Friday that 18 people, mainly Bangladeshi migrants, were being questioned by police. He also said the latest toll was 63 dead.

India has suffered a wave of bombings in recent years, with targets ranging from mosques and temples to trains. But few groups have ever claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Islamist militant groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh intent on fanning hatred between Muslims and Hindus in India, and damaging a fragile peace process between New Delhi and Islamabad, are often blamed for bomb attacks in India.