Home-grown group owns up to Delhi blast

Investigators examine two emails by militant groups claiming the deadly attack.

NEW DELHI:

A day after a high intensity blast killed 12 people and injured more than 70 at the Delhi High Court, investigators received yet another e-mail allegedly from banned terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen (IM).

This is a second e-mail since Wednesday which was sent by a terrorist organisation claiming responsibility for the attack. An earlier e-mail claiming responsibility for the terrorist attack was allegedly sent by members of the banned Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI).

“HuJI was not responsible for the blast; it was carried out by the Indian Mujahideen. We had made plans to target Delhi High Court for long and we decided to do it on Wednesday because it is the busiest day at the Delhi High Court,” stated the e-mail sent on Thursday afternoon. “We will again carry out an attack on Tuesday outside a shopping complex. Stop it if you can,” it further stated.

The email allegedly sent by ‘Chotu’ who claims to be a member of the Indian Mujahideen and used a Gmail address.

“We are taking this second e-mail very seriously and investigations are going on,” said Indian Internal Security Secretary UK Bansal. The home ministry has already approached Google to help track down the e-mail.

Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is spearheading the blast probe, announced a reward of INR500,000 (PKR 948,000) to anyone who provides information about the terrorists involved in the blast. NIA chief SC Sinha also met Delhi Police commissioner BK Gupta and members of the special cell (anti-terrorist unit) to discuss the ongoing probe.

Apart from tracking organisations like HuJI and IM, intelligence agencies are also tracking members of the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) and Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), suspecting their involvement in the blast.

“Although we suspect terrorists to have masterminded the blast, there are credible inputs suggesting involvement of some elements of Sikh militant groups that had become dormant,” an Indian home ministry official said.

Security agencies have also detained three men, including Mehmood Khwaja, a cyber café owner in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir. During the course of investigations, it was found that the first e-mail allegedly sent by members of HuJI was sent from his cyber café. Investigators have also detained Khalid, an associate of Khwaja.

“After detailed questioning of the three accused detained in connection to the e-mail, we have identified the person who had sent it to media organisations after the blast. The e-mail was sent after 1 pm and we don’t think that the person who wrote the e-mail was involved in the bomb attack,” said a senior home ministry official.

Senior officials of the home ministry also elaborated that a man from Patna, who was earlier arrested for using a stolen ATM card, was being questioned by members of the NIA for further clues in the case. Home ministry officials further said that the NIA would also probe the low intensity blast that occurred outside the Delhi High Court on May 25 this year to find out if the same terrorists were involved in the attack.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2011.