BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Kashmir police 'smash al-Qaeda cell'

Harkat al-Mujahideen: thought to be linked to al-Qaeda

PL Gupta, the police chief for the Jammu area in the disputed territory, said officers had arrested five people.

Qamar Ayub of the Harkat al-Mujahideen group, who lives in Mirpur in Pakistan-held Kashmir, had been given the task of setting up al-Qaeda cells elsewhere in India, Mr Gupta told reporters.

Abdul Rahim Wani, a leader of the Kashmir People's Democratic Party, for whom Mr Ayub is thought to have worked a driver, was also detained.

"Their main objective was to kill Americans and Israelis, besides hitting some more installations in the country," Mr Gupta said of the suspects.

Ammunition stash

According to a report by the Agence France Presse news agency, the five suspects were seized as they held a meeting in Mr Wani's house.

The agency quoted police as saying information revealed during Mr Ayub's interrogation had lead them to a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives in a hideout in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

These were thought to have been collected for planned attacks on hostels used by Jammu state legislators as well as on foreign targets in New Delhi.

Two policemen attached to Mr Wani were also detained, as was a Palestinian.

Mr Gupta said a large-scale hunt for an Arab suspect was also under way. The men are alleged to have confessed to police.

Indian courts do not accept confessions to police as evidence because of the risk of forced confessions.

'Bin Laden links'

Two suspected Harkat al-Mujahideen members carrying explosives in the Indian capital were arrested two days after the 11 September attacks, according to Indian police.

The State Bank of Pakistan ordered a freeze on accounts held by the group in late September, after it was included on a list of 27 individuals and organisations identified by the United States as being linked to terrorism.

A commander for the group, Mohammad Farooq, was killed by a US air strike in Afghanistan in October.

He is thought to have been fighting alongside Taleban forces.