Delhi High Court blast

It is too early to say with any amount of certainty who is behind the suitcase bomb blast at the Delhi High Court that has killed nine people, a figure that will probably rise in the hours and days ahead. Given that the Indians have not yet been able to find out who was behind a previous blast at the Delhi High Court in May and the triple blasts in Mumbai in July, we may never know the identity of the perpetrators. The Harkatul Jihad Islami (HuJi) has already claimed responsibility for the blast but, given that militant groups often take credit for attacks that they had nothing to do with, this should be taken with some scepticism.

If investigations do prove that it was the HuJi, then Pakistan could soon find itself in trouble. The HuJi is based in Pakistan and has been suspected of involvement in many previous attacks in both India and Bangladesh, apart from its terrorist activities in Pakistan itself. The government should seize on the Delhi High Court blasts to take on the HuJi regardless of whether it really is behind this latest attack. The HuJi has had its hands in enough terror plots in South Asia, including the Islamabad Marriott hotel bombing in 2008, to be considered a menace to peace that needs to be neutered.

While Pakistan has a responsibility to tackle the militants in its midst, India too must show maturity in dealing with the fallout from this attack. Just because the HuJI is based in Pakistan does not mean that it has official sanction for its terrorist activities. Pakistan has been cooperating with the US in trying to take out the HuJI’s leader, Ilyas Kashmiri, and it is believed that he was killed in a drone strike in June. India needs to keep in mind that groups like the HuJI are trying to ruin the fledgling peace process that has only recently been revived after ties were ruined after the 2008 Mumbai blasts. Blaming the Pakistani government for the attack in Delhi would not help in tackling militancy and only set back the cause of peace.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th,  2011.