India confirms deadly Delhi car blast being treated as ‘terror incident’ | India
India has confirmed that it is treating the explosion outside Delhi’s Red Fort on Monday, which killed 12 people, as a “terrorist incident” carried out by “anti-national forces”.
The statement by the cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed growing speculation that a terrorist attack was behind the rush hour explosion in one of the busiest areas of the capital and outside one of India’s major landmarks.
The force of the explosion, caused by a car driving bumper to bumper in traffic, threw the bodies into the air and caused nearby vehicles to catch fire. On Wednesday, the death toll rose to 12 after many people died from their injuries, while more than 30 people were injured. This was the deadliest terror attack in Delhi in over a decade.
A cabinet statement on Wednesday night condemned what it called “a despicable and cowardly act that led to the loss of innocent lives” and promised justice for the lives lost.
India’s anti-terrorism squad, the national investigation agency, was conducting the investigation and a case was registered by the police under the country’s anti-terrorism law. Declaring the incident as a terrorist incident gives investigators broad powers to raid and make arrests.
The cabinet statement did not provide further details on the nature of the terrorism behind the attack. However, earlier in the day, police confirmed that they had detained five people in the Pulwama district of the disputed Kashmir region in connection with the attack.
Although the link was not made directly by the police, it came after they claimed to have unearthed an “interstate and transnational terror” cell allegedly linked to Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) operating in a state neighboring Delhi.
The Pakistan-based rebel group operates primarily in Indian-administered Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan since its founding in 1947.
Police said they seized 2,900 kg of explosives, as well as chemicals, detonators and weapons, during raids in the early hours of Monday morning. At least seven people, including two Kashmiri doctors, were arrested as part of the terror cell raids.
Multiple sources briefing the Indian media claimed that investigators were trying to determine whether the driver of the car that caused the explosion in Delhi was part of the same terrorist cell and whether the attack on Monday night was a panicked reaction to arrests and raids.
The Red Fort blast was the first terror incident in India since the Pulwama attack in April, when gunmen singled out and shot dead more than 20 Hindu tourists. India accused Pakistan of masterminding the attack and retaliated in May with cross-border missiles that it said targeted camps and JeM hideouts.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the Pulwama attack. He responded with missile and drone strikes, bringing the two nuclear-armed countries closest to war in decades before a US-led ceasefire halted hostilities.
Afterwards, India repeatedly promised that any act of terrorism on Indian soil would be considered an “act of war”.
With relations already at a historical low, India’s certification of the Red Fort blast as a terrorist incident risks pushing the two countries towards full-blown hostilities that could further destabilize the region. Following Monday’s Red Fort explosion, the Modi cabinet reiterated that it would pursue a policy of “zero tolerance towards all forms of terrorism”.
The day after the explosion, a suicide bomber targeted a courthouse complex in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, killing 12 people. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but the country’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, blamed “Indian state terrorism” for the explosion and claimed that the attack took place “on India’s orders”.
On Tuesday, India’s home minister Amit Shah said he had instructed senior officials to “find all the culprits behind this incident.” “Anyone involved in this action will face the full wrath of our institutions,” he said.
