NEW DELHI, India – India asked Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for a suspect in this week's attack on a U.S. cultural center in Calcutta, Indian officials said Friday.
The warrant for Indian national Farhan Malik was requested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Home Minister L. K. Advani said. Indian officials described Malik as a "mafia don" who lives in Dubai, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
They said Malik had called police in Calcutta to claim responsibility for Tuesday's attack that killed four policemen guarding the U.S. cultural center in the eastern city of Calcutta.
Police have arrested six people, including three Bangladeshis, in the attack.
Advani said investigations by Indian agencies showed that Malik had been recruited by Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services intelligence, and had settled in Dubai.
Investigators said Malik may be in touch with Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups fighting for Kashmir's independence from India since 1989.
The Pakistan government and Pakistan-based militant groups have rejected the Indian claim.
India has an extradition treaty with the government in Abu Dhabi and Indian agencies were coordinating efforts that may lead to India seeking Malik's custody from the United Arab Emirates, Advani said.
Malik claimed that the attack was in retaliation for the death of the Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami leader, Hafiz Khan, who was killed in a shootout with police in India last October.
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