Bangalore: Indian police arrest alleged Islamic extremist linked to attack on science institute

Indian police said Monday they arrested a man in connection with last month's shooting at a prestigious science institute in the country's technology hub, Bangalore.

The 35-year-old suspect, with aliases that include Habib and Mehmood Ibrahim, was arrested on Sunday in the southern part of Karnataka and brought to the state's capital, Bangalore, for questioning, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

In the Dec. 28 attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, gunmen opened fire at a group of people coming out of a scientific seminar, killing a retired professor before escaping. The attack has been blamed on Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Kashmiri militant group, and police earlier this month arrested the alleged leader of the group's operations in southern India, Abdul Rehman. Karnataka is in southern India.

Officials have said the attack is part of a broader effort by Kashmir militants to expand their fight from the disputed Himalayan region and target India's scientific and economic hubs, the AP reported.

Lashkar is the most feared of more than a dozen rebel groups that have been fighting since 1989 seeking independence for Kashmir or the merger of the Himalayan province with neighboring Pakistan. The 16-year insurgency has killed about 66,000 people, most of them civilians.