{{Media in India are giving prominent coverage to the arrest of four suspected militants ahead of the general elections.}}
Senior police officers say they have averted “a spectacular terror strike” by arresting four alleged members of the banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) group.
Polling for a new Lok Sabha, or lower house of India’s parliament, will be held from 7 April to 12 May. Votes will be counted on 16 May.
“We have arrested Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas, a Pakistani national, Sunday. He, along with his accomplices, was planning a major attack in the country,” a report in the Business Standard quotes SN Srivastava, a top police official in Delhi, as saying.
India’s intelligence agencies and police blame the IM for several terror attacks in the past few years.
The police arrested Waqas and three other IM members from the northern state of Rajasthan after an intelligence-sharing operation between different police forces, the Hindustan Times reports.
Waqas is wanted in connection with bomb blasts in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad over the past several years. He is reportedly a bomb expert, reports say.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the arrest of Waqas was a great success, as he was a crucial link to the group, Reuters news agency reports.
His arrest is the second major setback for the IM as its founder, Yasin Bhatkal, was arrested in Nepal last year, papers say.
Meanwhile, tourists travelling in groups will now be able to book an entire coach in the Delhi metro to see the city, the Hindustan Times reports.
“The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has decided to allow tour operators, government and private agencies, or any individual on behalf of a group or school to avail the facility,” the paper says.
Booking a coach may cost anywhere between 30,000-50,000 rupees (£300-500, $490-820), the paper adds.
In other news, a 24-year-old woman’s breasts were allegedly cut off by another woman and two male accomplices in Bhiwandi on the outskirts of Mumbai, The Deccan Chronicle reports.
The victim was attacked after she refused to work as a sex worker in a brothel run by the 34-year-old woman, the paper adds.
Police say the woman has been arrested but the male suspects are still at large, the paper reports.
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