Poor Muslims Cite Fear of Backlash After Blasts in Historic Indian City

JAIPUR, India, May 15 -- Down dusty alleys in a neighborhood of Bangladeshi migrant workers, police detectives searched house to house Thursday for suspects in the coordinated bombings that tore through this historic city two days ago.

Dozens of Bangladeshis were questioned. Police said that at least 30 have been taken into custody but that no arrests have been made.

Investigators say they believe that the attacks, which killed 80 and wounded 200, were the work of Harkat ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a Bangladeshi militant group. Police released sketches of men, described as dark-skinned and in their mid-20s, who bought bicycles that police said might have been used to transport the bombs used in the attacks. The bicycle merchants told police the men spoke Bengali, the main language of Bangladesh.

"We must verify that every single person here is registered with us," said the deputy superintendent of police, Jeewan Bishnoi, squinting in the sun as he strode through the crowded neighborhood lugging a thick book of photographs and fingerprints. "This is what it is now in Jaipur."

But the residents of the neighborhood, Bagrana, said they were deeply concerned about a backlash and felt they had been targeted as suspects because of their Muslim faith. India is predominantly Hindu but has a sizable Muslim minority. Similar roundups of Muslims took place after train bombings in Mumbai in July 2006 that killed nearly 200 people.

"I pick up scraps and garbage for my living," said Daulat Khan, 60, who was wearing a bright blue lungi, the flowing, skirtlike wrap worn by Bangladeshi men. "We are a poor community. We don't have the funds to orchestrate this kind of thing or the time. . . . They hassle us just because we are Muslims. It's very wrong."

Nearby, rail-thin men broke rocks in the hot sun while their wives stirred pots of boiling rice and swatted away flies. Many said they had lived in Jaipur for decades, some with official work visas, others illegally. All had come to escape the grinding poverty in Bangladesh but had found only slighter higher wages in India.

"You are welcome," said M.K. Laskar, a tobacco and cigarette dealer, waving in the police officers fanning out in their dozens among Bagrana's concrete houses. "We have nothing to hide here."

A previously unknown group, the Indian Mujaheddin, asserted responsibility for the attack via e-mail Thursday and threatened further violence in a letter. "If you continue to arrest innocent Muslims, then we will slaughter you on the streets of Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore," the letter said.

The group also warned tourists, "Don't send your people to India and if you do so then you people will be welcomed by our suicide attackers."

Police traced the e-mail, which included a video, to a cybercafe in the Sahibabad area of Ghaziabad, just outside the capital, New Delhi. The owner and his son were taken in for questioning. The video showed images of a bicycle it said had explosives strapped to it.

"We are determining the authenticity of the letter," Jaipur's police inspector general, Pankaj Singh, said in an interview. "At the same time, we're talking to anyone who may be suspicious and not keeping with the laws of the land."