India police arrest two men who aided in communication of Mumbai attacks

Police in the eastern city of Kolkata identified the men as Tausif Rehman and Mukhtar Ahmed and said they were picked up on Friday after investigators traced some of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards recovered from the gunmen.

“We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai,” Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner of detectives in Kolkata, told Reuters.

The arrests are further evidence of Indian complicity in the three-day rampage. New Delhi has blamed the attacks on Islamic militants from neighboring Pakistan, raising tension between South Asia’s longtime foes, both nuclear-armed.

Airports in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai remained on high alert for a fourth day on Saturday, with extra security personnel deployed after India’s civil aviation authority said it had received intelligence that attacks could be planned.

Security was also high in the north Indian town of Ayodhya on Saturday, the 16th anniversary of the razing of the Babri mosque by a Hindu extremist mob which set off Hindu-Muslim riots that killed thousands .A makeshift Hindu temple now stands there.

Earlier, 15 Hindu activists demanding a permanent temple be built were arrested in nearby Faizabad while Muslim activists who ordinarily fly a black flag on the anniversary opted not to.

“We are not making any public protest this time in view of the large-scale carnage by terrorists in Mumbai,” activist leader Yunus Siddiqui told Reuters.

Police said they were pursuing details of local Indian help for the Mumbai attackers after the arrests of Rehman and Ahmed.

Rehman, a clerk, used a dead relative’s identity documents to acquire the 22 SIM cards which he later sold to Ahmed, Shamim said later. Both men were charged with conspiracy and forgery.

Ahmed was a street vendor and three-wheel taxi driver in Kolkata, Shamim said. He was arrested in New Delhi.

Shamim said it was not immediately clear how the SIM cards were passed to the gunmen, whom investigators have said talked to their handlers during the 60-hour rampage.

Mumbai police have said the gunmen were controlled by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group blamed for earlier attacks in India, including a 2001 assault on India’s parliament that very nearly sparked a war between India and Pakistan.

There has been public anger at intelligence failures in preventing the attacks. India’s newly appointed home minister admitted on Friday there had been lapses.

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