India appears ready to blame Pakistan for US centre attack

Ananova ^ | 01/22/02 | ananova

[Arkle]

India appears ready to blame its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan for an attack on the US cultural center in Calcutta that claimed five lives.

Five police were killed and 20 other people were injured when assailants armed with automatic weapons fired on the American Centre.

The gunmen escaped and Indian officials said a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group had claimed responsibility.

Home Minister Lal K Advani, head of security for India, said the group has ties to Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence.

"The immediate response that I got was that it is a group connected with the ISI," he told a large group of business and political leaders in New Delhi.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Aziz Khan said that Islamabad condemned the attack and the ISI had no involvement.

"These are all baseless allegations," Mr Khan said. "There is no truth that Pakistan's ISI was behind the attack on the American Centre."

In New Delhi, a senior home ministry official told The Associated Press that a man called police in New Delhi and said the attack had been carried out by Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami.

A spokesman for Kashmir-based Islamic militant groups, however, denied any involvement by the group and claimed the Indian spy agency, Research and Analysis Wing, had carried out the attack.

Home Minister Lal K Advani said the attack on the American Centre would further strengthen Washington and New Delhi's resolve to jointly combat terrorism: "To defeat this evil terrorism is another objective that binds us together."

[Arkle]

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