POLICE MAKE FIRST ARRESTS IN MUMBAI TRAIN BOMBING CASE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MUMBAI 001356

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR OPS CENTER, S/CT, SCA/INS, DS, DS/IP/ITA, DS/IP/SCA,
DS/ICI/PII

E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/19/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV KISL CASC ASEC PK IN
SUBJECT: POLICE MAKE FIRST ARRESTS IN MUMBAI TRAIN BOMBING CASE

REF: MUMBAI 1332

CLASSIFIED BY: Michael Owen, Consul General, Consulate General
Mumbai, State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Investigators have reportedly made the first formal
arrests in connection with the July 7 train bombings in Mumbai
that killed over 180 people. If the media reports match
information we have received from the police, then those
arrested are suspected of having helped move materials for the
bombing from Pakistan to Mumbai via Nepal and the Indian state
of Bihar.


2. (U) The local media quoted police sources as saying that
officials arrested two men from the town of Madhubani in Bihar
late on July 20 and one man in Navi Mumbai early on July 21.
Navi Mumbai is a suburb located to the northeast of Mumbai. The
three were to be brought before a Mumbai court on July 21. The
man from Navi Mumbai has been identified only as "Mumtaz." The
press is giving various names for the two men arrested in Bihar.
One is called either "Mohammad Kalam" or "Kamal" and the second
"Khaleel Aziz" or "Khalil Azeem."


3. (C) The names of two of those arrested match information that
Consulate Mumbai received from the local police in an earlier
briefing. K.S. Pasricha, Director General of the Maharashtra
police, told us on July 19 (reftel) that investigators were
searching for a man from Bihar whom Pasricha called "Kamal" and
two persons from Uttar Pradesh, on of whom he called "Mumtaz."
Pasricha said the police suspected that "Kamal" played a central
role in the planning and execution of the Mumbai train bombings.
He told us that investigators now believed that materials and
manpower for the operation came to Mumbai from Pakistan via
Nepal and Bihar. In Bihar, "Kamal" played an important
logistics role in moving the material to Mumbai, Pasricha told
us. Police had observed the person known as "Mumtaz," along
with a second person, for several weeks before the bombings, and
registered a spike in communications on the day of the bombings.
"Mumtaz" and the second man from UP were brothers-in-law of
"Kamal," Pasricha had said. He promised to give us the full
names of the three men but has yet to follow up. If two of the
three were in fact from UP, it is unclear when they traveled to
Navi Mumbai and Bihar, respectively.

Comment

--------------


4. (C) Various media outlets are reporting additional arrests
in this fast moving case, none of which could be verified late
on July 21. The media is calling the three arrests in Bihar and
Navi Mumbai a breakthrough. That may be the case, yet we
exercise caution when commenting on the progress of the
investigation. Pasricha did tell us that the police believed
that "Kamal" played a key logistical role in the bombings, yet
he was not specific. The police may have hard evidence linking
the three individuals to the attacks, and Pasricha may have been
reticent to share such sensitive information with us. But it is
also possible that investigators have little on the three over
and beyond a series of tapped phone calls of unknown or unclear
content. We will probably learn more in the coming days, at a
press conference scheduled for late on July 21, or through leaks
to the media by unnamed "police sources" that often turned out
to be untrue or wrongly reported. End comment.

OWEN