Blast Inquiry Tests Ties to Israel and Iran

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Saurabh Das/Associated PressJahan Ara, the wife of Syed Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi, broke down as friends, journalists and family members held a candlelight vigil in New Delhi.

The warrants issued by Indian authorities this week for three Iranian citizens in connection with an attack last month in which assailants attached a magnetic bomb to an Israeli diplomatic vehicle here, coupled with new accusations about the bombing, seem certain to worsen the deepening crisis between Israel and Iran, Jim Yardley writes in The New York Times.
At a Friday news conference, B. K. Gupta, the Delhi police commissioner, described a plot in which the authorities accused an Indian freelance journalist, Sayed Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi, “of providing logistical support for the Feb. 13 blast, which injured the wife of an Israeli diplomat and three others,” Mr. Yardley writes.

The police say that Mr. Kazmi, who was arrested last week, visited Iran twice last year and was later involved on reconnaissance trips to the Israeli Embassy here.
“He has been arrested as a facilitator and for being a part of the conspiracy,” according to a statement issued by the Delhi police after the news conference.
Mr. Kazmi’s family has flatly rejected the charges against him and accused the police of falsely implicating him because of his work as a journalist, in which he wrote about the mistreatment of Muslims in India.

On Friday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered in New Delhi for a protest rally and demanded that the police release Mr. Kazmi. His son, Shauzab Kazmi, 22, called the charges “completely baseless,” Mr. Yardley writes.
The police have identified the three Iranians implicated in the New Delhi bombing as Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr and Mohammadreza Abolghasemi, he writes.

The police say that Mr. Kazmi, the Indian journalist, was paid $5,500 and provided assistance to one of the three Iranian suspects, Mr. Irani. The two men traveled by motor scooter on reconnaissance missions to the Israeli Embassy, the police said, adding that the scooter was seized from Mr. Kazmi’s residence. The police also confiscated a vehicle that they say Mr. Kazmi and some Iranian suspects used for reconnaissance.