Suspects named but bomb anger lingers.

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Police said yesterday they were closing on suspects after bombs killed 21 people in India's capital at the weekend, but anger grew over the failure to prevent recent attacks.Police identified Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a convent-educated computer expert and member of a banned Islamic students' group, as the chief suspect in the New Delhi attack, and said he was also involved in bombing the city of Ahmedabad in July.They are also looking for a man named as Qayamuddin, also known as Ashfaque."We are close to cracking the case," Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. "We have picked up some people."The Indian media did not echo the optimism of the police after bombings in four major cities killed more than 150 people in recent months. In each case, suspects were named and Muslims were rounded up, but the attacks continue."What's changed ;" asked an editorial in the Indian Express newspaper yesterday.

Police are massively understaffed and under-resourced. There is no central database of militants and little time for meticulous investigations."We have not had a dedicated task force to look into the deficiencies in our counter-terrorism mechanism," said B Raman, a former head of India's spy agency RAW."We need a central investigation agency for counter-terrorism to build up a cadre of investigation officers."Others say part of the problem stems from a sense of alienation among India's minority Muslims, many of whom feel government efforts to stamp out Islamist militancy often victimise the entire community.Alienation was also fuelled by communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, when around 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked and burnt to death. "Immediately after the Delhi blasts, the government has again started persecuting innocent Muslims by dragging them from their homes for questioning," Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric of Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, said.

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