An alleged mastermind of the Mumbai train bombings has told police that militants once tried to kill the nationalist leader of a western Indian state that was the scene of deadly religious riots, a newspaper reported yesterday.The Hindustan Times newspaper, citing an interrogation report, said suspected train bomber Faisal Shaikh told investigators his militant group wanted to kill the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. The plot by Lashkar-e-Taiba - the Pakistan-based group also blamed for July's train bombings in Mumbai - was foiled when police shot and killed the alleged assassin in June 2004, according to the daily.
Gujarat was the scene of India's bloodiest religious violence in recent years when a train fire killed 60 people returning from a religious pilgrimage in 2002. Muslims were blamed for the blaze, and more than 1,000 people were killed by mobs in violence that followed. Human rights groups and Muslims have accused the state government, led by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, of doing little to stop the violence, and at times even stoking it.