Man arrested in Nepal over suspected links to Mumbai blasts

Mangalore Today / PTI

Kathmandu, July 26: Nepal police have arrested a man suspected of having links with the 13 July Mumbai triple bomb blasts that killed 24 people.

State-run Gorkhapatra daily reported today that a 40-year-old man, Mohamad Zahid, was arrested yesterday from Baluwatar on the outskirts of Kathmandu and was being questioned by the anti-terrorist police unit.

 

 

Zahid, a resident of Sarlahi district of southern Nepal bordering India, was allegedly involved in the July 13 Mumbai blasts, the daily said.

However, police gave contradictory statements on the arrest, with its spokesman Navaraj Dhakal saying that a man named Zahid was arrested from Kathmandu under Public Defence Act, but “we have no information about his links with the Mumbai blasts.”

Superintendent of Police Kedar Rijal, who is also Kathmandu Metropolitan Police chief, said separately that Zahid was arrested from Kathmandu after he was found involved in fighting with the locals and “we are further investigating the matter”.

Gorkhapatra, quoting unnamed police sources, said that Zahid, who was arrested by the anti-terror squad of Nepal Police, is found to have used SMS and telephone to communicate with different people.

It said he had been operating a terrorist network from his rented room at Baluwatar.

If true, this could be the first arrest anywhere in connection with the bombings.

The news agency AFP, quoting an unnamed police officer, identified the arrested man as an Indian and said he had been held to explain text messages and phone calls made to someone in Mumbai.

No group has so far come forward to claim responsibility for the explosions that were the first attack on the city since the November 2008 strikes that had claimed 166 lives.

Nepal and India do not have an extradition treaty and a draft pact to this effect has been pending with Nepal for years.

PTI