Kashmiri militants based in Pakistan on Wednesday denied being involved in a wave of train bombings in India's financial hub Mumbai and branded the attacks a "crime against humanity".
SRINAGAR/MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri militants on Wednesday denied being involved in a wave of train bombings in India's financial hub Mumbai and branded the attacks a "crime against humanity".
Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant group in Kashmir, on Wednesday denied allegations it was behind train bombings in Mumbai which left 190 people dead.
"We strongly condemn the train blasts in Mumbai and deny our group's involvement. These killings are inhuman. The killers of innocent people cannot be the friends of humanity," spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi said in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar.
"Our jihad (struggle) is only against the Indian troops in Kashmir. Islam does not allow the killing of innocent people," Ghaznavi told AFP.
He said reports blaming the outfit for the explosions were a conspiracy against Kashmir's freedom struggle.
Media reports on Wednesday quoted unnamed police officials as saying that it was investigating the role of the guerrilla outfit in the blasts, and its alleged links to a militant student group, the Students Islamic Movement of India.
"We strongly condemn the killings of innocent people in attacks in Mumbai," said Ihsan Elahi, spokesman for Hizbul Mujahedin, a leading umbrella group of guerilla outfits.
"This is an inhuman act, we reject it, no religion or morality allows it. The killing of innocent people is a crime against humanity," he told AFP.
The group also called for an "independent commission with international support" to investigate Tuesday's attacks in Mumbai, which left 183 dead and hundreds more injured.
The spokesman went on to condemn a string of grenade attacks in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's main city, also on Tuesday, that killed eight tourists and injured 39 other people.
"Kashmiris were also killed. Why would we kill our own people?" he said. Hizbul Mujahideen is one of several groups fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which is divided into two zones under Indian and Pakistani control.
India has accused Pakistan of fomenting a 17-year Islamist insurgency in the Indian-ruled sector which has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1989, by New Delhi's count.
Separately the Islamist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa also condemned the bombings.
"We fully condemn this act of terrorism. This could be a conspiracy against the ongoing peace process with India," said Jamaat-ud-Dawa spokesman Saadullah, who goes by one name.
The United States in April banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, officially a charity, saying it was a new front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, another leading Kashmiri militant group.
Pakistan outlawed Lashkar in 2002 but has refused to ban Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which was a major supplier of aid after last October's devastating Kashmir earthquake, which killed nearly 75,000 people.
A Lashkar-e-Taiba spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed "terrorists" for the bombs but declined to speculate on who might be responsible.
Police were probing links between the Students' Islamic Movement of India and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
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