Two arrested in American center attack in India

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Two men suspected of involvement in the January 22 attack on an American government center in Kolkata, India, were brought to New Delhi early Saturday after they were deported by the United Arab Emirates, Indian officials said.

Aftab Ansari -- who, police said, admitted making a phone call to Indian authorities on the day of the attack claiming responsibility for it -- and Ragendar Kumar were reportedly arrested soon after the deadly shooting, but only now handed over to Indian authorities.

Indian officials said that the pair were not extradited, but rather deported by the UAE based on evidence against them provided by India.

Gunmen on motorcycles sped by the American Center in Kolkata, formerly called Calcutta, on January 22, killing five policemen. Indian officials have maintained that Pakistani intelligence was tied to the attack.

On January 28, police shot and killed two Pakistani nationals in eastern India suspected of carrying out the attack. Indian officials said the men had links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, which India blames for supporting extremist groups that carry out attacks on India.

Neerag Kumar, joint director of the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation, said that Ansari had four motives for the attack -- to prove to colleagues that if anything should happen to them they would be avenged; the attack was on the American Center and therefore an attack on Americans; there were American officials, including FBI director Robert Mueller, in India at the time; and the attack would boost Ansari to "international stardom" overnight.

Police said that Ansari had a valid Pakistani passport issued in Lahore, Pakistan, and that they were investigating a possible connection with Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the Pakistani militant suspected of masterminding the kidnapping last month of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Sheikh was jailed by India in 1994 for involvement in the kidnapping of British and American tourists and was freed on December 31, 1999, to end the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight. Ansari, police said, was jailed during the same time period.