7/11 and Diwali blasts linked?

MUMBAI POLICE believe the October 2005 blasts in Delhi and the July 11 train blasts in Mumbai were masterminded by the same man. Delhi Police, however, say they are yet to get any evidence of this from their Mumbai counterparts.

Faisal Sheikh, the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba's western India chief who allegedly masterminded the July 11 blasts in Mumbai, was also behind the October 2005 blasts in Delhi that killed 55, say 11/7 investigators who declined to be named. Mumbai Police had arrested Sheikh in late July.

Intelligence Bureau officers, who also requested anonymity, said Sheikh had masterminded the Delhi blasts with the help of two Kashmir-based Lashkar commanders -- the absconding Ali Mohammed and Abu Huzefa. But Delhi Police refuse to believe these claims.  Karnal Singh, joint commissioner, special cell, Delhi Police, said: "Neither have we received any communication from Mumbai Police nor is it possible that such a claim is true. The entire module -- right from the conspirator Huzefa to the financier Tariq Ahmed Dar and the bomber Mohammed Shah -- involved in the Delhi blasts was busted by us."

While Huzefa was shot dead by Delhi Police in an encounter in Kashmir in January, Dar and Shah were arrested from Srinagar. "We have got intercepts, which clearly point to the role of those arrested in the Delhi blasts," Singh said.