INDIA: Scores of Indian Muslims, radicalised by the Hindu nationalist-led federal coalition's anti-Islam campaign, are returning home, having undergone arms training in neighbouring Pakistan, and carrying out terrorist strikes.
Deputy police commissioner Mr D.G. Vanzara said eight youths, instructed in weapon-handling, bomb-making and urban sabotage at special camps outside the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, were among 18 people on trial last week for assassinating western Gujarat state's former Home Minister, Haren Pandya.
Police said interrogations revealed that up to 250 other Muslim youths from Gujarat and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh have returned home after similar training in Pakistan and are "sleepers" waiting to strike.
Muslims constitute around 13 per cent of India's population of over 1 billion, while Hindus form over 82 per cent.
Prosecutors claim Pandya was assassinated in March for his role in last year's pogrom of Muslims across Gujarat by the majority Hindu community, in which nearly 2000 people died.
Pandya was alleged to have personally participated in several outrages, including the demolition of a mosque in the Paldi area of Ahmedabad, the state's largest city and financial capital, which bore the brunt of the sectarian rioting.
The anti-Muslim rioting followed the burning of a trainload of 58 Hindus, including women and children allegedly by a Muslim mob.
Mr Vanzara, who heads the investigation into the former minister's killing, said five of the eight Muslims - all aged between 20 and 28 - went to Karachi via the Bangladeshi capital, Dacca, while the others travelled to Pakistan via Dubai.
They were helped by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Directorate, which India holds responsible for fuelling Muslim insurgency in Kashmir.