Another e-mail, this too from Mumbai

Another blast, another e-mail from Mumbai. Minutes before five blasts went off in New Delhi, the Indian Mujahideen sent an e-mail...

Another blast, another e-mail from Mumbai. Minutes before five blasts went off in New Delhi, the Indian Mujahideen sent an e-mail to a television channel, bragging about its role in the attacks. Like in the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts case, the e-mail was traced to an eastern suburb in Mumbai.

The blasts had the same footprints as those in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, with the e-mail8212;threatening to set off nine blasts in the Capital8212;claiming that Saturday8217;s blasts are a continuation of the attacks in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The rabid mail, which poured vitriol on Indian authorities, contained references to some very local Mumbai incidents8212;like a police raid on some Muslim colonies in Andheri8212;that were hardly noticed or reported even in the city. This, investigators said, showed that the perpetrators had good knowledge of events in Mumbai, possibly through a local network.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad ATS chief Hemant Karkare told The Sunday Express that they suspected Saturday8217;s mail was sent from a WiFi Internet connection at 201/202, Eric House, Commercial Complex, 16th Road, Chembur. The July 26 e-mail, sent minutes before the Ahmedabad blasts, had been traced to the unsecured WiFi connection of US national Kenneth Haywood in the eastern satellite city of Navi Mumbai, but its senders are yet to be traced. Another terror e-mail sent weeks earlier was traced to Khalsa College in Matunga, another eastern Mumbai suburb.

The two-storey Chembur building, from where Saturday8217;s mail was sent, houses some garment shops, restaurants on the ground floor and has a pathology lab, a physiotherapy clinic and the office of a property developer on the first floor. On the second floor, 201/202, the residence of M.K. Kamat, was locked. The security guard said Kamat, his wife and son had been away all day. Investigators told The Sunday Express that Kamat owned Kamran Power Controls Pvt Ltd, which manufactures and exports electrical panels and control panel boards.

They said the PDF file in the terror e-mail seemed to have been created at 1.38 p.m. on Saturday while the e-mail ID, al_arbi_delhiyahoo.com, from which the mail was sent was created minutes earlier. The high-end software used to create the PDF file was similar to those used in previous mails, indicating that the same group could be behind the mails.

The mail referred to a night raid on some Muslim colonies in Mumbai8217;s Andheri suburb on August 31 and alleged that the ATS had harassed and troubled Muslims there. 8220;You threatened to murder them and your mischief went to such an extent that you even dared to abuse and insult Maulana Mahmoood-ul-Hasan Qasmi and even misbehaved with the Muslim women and children there,8221; the mail said.

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The 13-page e-mail devotes considerable space to investigations carried out by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police and also the Mumbai ATS. Calling the Gujarat police8217;s crackdown a 8220;forged story8221;, the mail taunts the police, asking them that if the masterminds had been nabbed then, 8220;which mastermind executed today8217;s attack?8221;

The e-mail signed off by Guru Al Hindi and Al-Arbi, further says: 8220;The Indian Mujahideen accepts the sole responsibility for the Delhi serial blasts and we claim this through our third consecutive e-mail, which is unfortunately, still a mystery for you. It is very sad to see the bad condition of your cyber forensics who have still failed to find out our technique of sending the message of death.8221;

With inputs from Kavitha Iyer, Mumbai, and ENS, Delhi