Building Owner, Aide Arrested in Calcutta Blast

The owner of an apartment building and an associate were arrested Wednesday in connection with the explosion in Calcutta early Wednesday that killed 50 people and injured 92.

Calcutta’s police chief, Tushar Talukdar, said forensic experts will decide whether the explosion, which ripped through the buildings shortly after midnight, was caused by a bomb or the careless handling of stored explosives.

Talukdar said the owner of the devastated buildings and an associate, both Muslims, have been arrested, but he declined to say on what charges.

The explosion occurred in Bowbazaar, which links the city’s main business area with the crowded Sealdah suburban railway terminus. Such a blast in daytime would have killed hundreds of people, police said.

The blast here came five days after 13 bombs killed about 300 people in Bombay, in western India. No one claimed responsibility for those blasts, but police believe they were the work of Muslim mobsters organized by a foreign group. A U.S. government report said the capital, New Delhi, could be the next target.

Patrols were stepped up at the Parliament building, the New Delhi airport, the city’s main railway stations and government buildings.

U.N. offices in New Delhi canceled visits by foreign staff, banned field trips by local personnel and advised avoiding crowded places, U.N. sources said.

In Bombay, police said three more people were arrested in connection with last Friday’s explosions.