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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