Muslims in Jaipur fear backlash after blasts: WP

WASHINGTON - Muslims, mostly Bangladeshi migrant workers, in the Indian city of Jaipur say they were deeply concerned about a backlash and felt they had been targeted as suspects because of their Islamic faith in the wake of Tuesday's bombings, according to a dispatch in The Washington Post on Friday.

They spoke to The Post correspondent as police detectives searched house to house Thursday for suspects in the coordinated bombings that hit this historic city three days ago.

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

Investigators was cited as saying 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.

"We must verify that every single person here is registered with us," the deputy superintendent of police, Jeewan Bishnoi, was quoted as saying. "This is what it is now in Jaipur."

"I pick up scraps and garbage for my living," one Daulat Khan, 60, was quoted as saying. "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."

Some people pointed out that Indians had invited them in to provide cheap labour but that the government had recently cracked down and even started warning that it would deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

"Is this some sort of a joke?" asked M.K. Laskar, a cigarette dealer, as he watched neighbours work in the sweltering heat, digging water holes and rebuilding their homes. "All of a sudden India doesn't want us anymore?"