Shooting at American Center in Calcutta leaves four dead, 20 wounded

Posted 11:34AM on Tuesday 22nd January 2002 ( 23 years ago )

CALCUTTA, India - Heavily armed gunmen killed four Indian police officers Tuesday at a U.S. government cultural center, and Indian officials called the slayings a "terrorist attack," saying a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group claimed responsibility. Eighteen officers, one pedestrian and one private security guard were wounded, said state Home Secretary Amit Kiran Deb. No Americans were injured and no consulate staffers were in the building, which was closed for the day. Deb initially said five officers had died, but later said the fifth was in critical condition. The bloody assault compounds tension between India and Pakistan, which are already on a war footing with troops massed on their common border. The United States has sought to mediate the conflict to keep efforts in the region focused on the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan. Russia condemned the attack, calling it a terrorist act "aimed at further aggravation of the situation in South Asia." Draped in shawls, four attackers on two motorcycles drove up to the American Center in the heart of populous Calcutta at 6:30 a.m., shot at officers and fled, said the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. The attack comes more than a month after an assault on the Indian Parliament left nine government workers and five attackers dead in New Delhi. India blamed two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups for the attack, which prompted the threat of war between the South Asian rivals. A pool of blood could be seen outside the American Center. Spent AK-47 bullets littered the street. FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was in India meeting officials, suggested it was too soon to label the shooting a terrorist attack. "I think I will describe it as a horrible tragedy and an assault on police officers," Mueller told reporters. "But categorizing it beyond that, in the absence of the facts ... would be inappropriate at this time." Still, India's home minister, Lal Krishna Advani, called it a "terrorist attack" against U.S. and Indian interests. A senior home ministry official told The Associated Press that a man called police in New Delhi and said the attack had been carried out by Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami. Advani said the Pakistan-based militant group, which fought the Indian army in Kashmir in the 1990s, is connected to Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence. A spokesman for the group said India manufactured the claim. "None of our members was behind it," Mohammed Rizwan Kashmiri said. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Aziz Khan also denied the claim. "These are all baseless allegations. There is no truth that Pakistan's ISI was behind the attack on the American Center," he said. In Calcutta, however, Deb said another call to police, traced to Dubai, also said Harkat claimed responsibility. One local Calcutta newspaper received a fax from an unidentified group saying, "We have taken over your city." The fax also threatened to blow up the Howrah Bridge in Calcutta, which spans the Ganges River. Another newspaper in Calcutta received a phone call from an unknown group called Asif Reza Commando Force, which claimed responsibility for the attack. Police had earlier said that both newspapers had received faxes from Harkat. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said a "mafia don" based in Dubai and named Farhan, alias Aftab Malik, had claimed responsibility for the attack. "It is obviously a terrorist attack," she said. "Farhan could be in touch with Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen," another Pakistan-based militant group. The Calcutta office of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party said it also received a telephone call threatening to blow up the local office. The United Jehad Council, a coalition of Kashmir-based Islamic militant groups, also denied any involvement and claimed India's spy agency was responsible. The attackers were not hurt, said Calcutta Police Commissioner Sujoy Chakraborty. "They used high-caliber automatic weapons. It is a terrorist attack but we cannot yet identify which group was involved," Chakraborty said. He said the attack occurred when the police officers on the night shift were changing guard. Armed forces were quickly deployed to guard bus and railway stations, bridges and other key facilities throughout the state. In the Indian capital of New Delhi, a security cabinet held an emergency meeting and a high alert was issued at the U.S. Embassy and other American institutions. Joint Commissioner of Police Suresh Roy said there were intelligence reports of a possible strike against U.S. establishments in India as part of an "unprecedented threat" during India's Republic Day celebrations this coming Saturday. "We have tightened the entire security arrangement at the U.S. Embassy and all U.S. establishments. A general alert has been sounded," Roy said in New Delhi. Security has been tightened in recent months at the American Embassy in New Delhi, consulate buildings and other offices across the country to prevent possible attacks by Islamic guerrillas fighting to separate the Himalayan region of Kashmir from Indian control. The American Center, one of the two U.S. government buildings in Calcutta, houses a popular library, the embassy's public affairs office, a press section and a wing for cultural programs. The center is one of the landmarks of Calcutta, the eastern metropolis that is the capital of the communist-run West Bengal state. Anti-American protests by communists and labor unions are often held there, but this is the first violent attack against an American compound in India. The attack came a day after Indian and American officials held the first meetings of the Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

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