Police said yesterday they were questioning several people in connection with blasts that killed 32 people in a western town and were investigating possible links with train bombings in Mumbai in July.

Three bombs went off in and around a mosque in the textile town of Malegaon on Friday, killing at least 32 people and wounding about 100, mostly Muslim worshippers who had gathered for weekly prayers.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the town that has a history of strife between Hindus and Muslims. Muslims make up about 70 percent of Malegaon?s 700,000 population.

?No arrests have been made. No one has been detained. As part of investigations some people have been only questioned,? Anil Kumbhare, additional police superintendent of Malegaon, told Reuters.

Investigators said although they had no evidence, they were exploring if the Malegaon explosions could be linked with the July 11 serial bombings on Mumbai?s railway network that killed 186 people and wounded around 700.

The Mumbai carnage has been blamed on militant Indian Muslims backed by Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is fighting against New Delhi?s rule in disputed Kashmir.

Work of very professional people

Mumbai, India?s financial and entertainment hub, is the capital of of Maharashtra. Malegaon, also in Maharashtra, is 260 km north-east of Mumbai. Suspicions of a link between the two attacks were based on several arms and explosives seizures from Islamist militants in Maharashtra, including in Malegaon, this year.

?This (Malegaon) attack seems to be the work of very professional people because it was well coordinated and timed like the attacks on Mumbai,? said a senior investigating officer.

Officials said investigators had gathered leads from three blast sites in Malegaon and the evidence had been sent for forensic testing.

?What type of explosives were used will be known in two days and then we may be in a position to say if these blasts were linked with those in Mumbai,? said R.R. Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. ?The investigation team is very hopeful. They have a box, some bags, three cycles which might give us important leads.?

The Malegaon strikes came on an auspicious day for Muslims called ?Shab-e-Barat?, when they pray for the dead and which comes just before the holy month of Ramadan. They also believe that prayers on this day absolve them of sins.

The blasts also came days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that intelligence agencies had warned of more terrorist attacks across the country, possibly against economic and religious targets as well as on nuclear installations.

Krittivas MUKHERJEE