The blasts in Delhi and Islamabad: Why India may have to resort to pre-emptive actions

While India would not want a war, the Pakistani army would not mind another exchange, if only to re-establish its relevance again. So, though war avoidance is desirable, it cannot bea strategy.

- AJAY SINGH

On 10 November at 6.52 in the evening, a white Hyundai I-20 loaded with ammonium nitrate, exploded at a traffic light near the Red Fort Metro Station. The impact of the blast killed 15 people and injured 20 others in the vicinity, along with the occupant of the car, later identified as Umar Mohammed, a Pulwama based doctor working at the Al Falah University in Faridabad.

‘The blast came just a day after the Haryana police had recovered over 2,500 kilograms of explosives, chemicals, reagents and electrical circuits from a house in Faridabad. The trail began with the detection of a poster praising the Jaish e Mohammed in Srinagar and led to four Kashmir-based doctors in Faridabad, working in Al Falah University. They were part of clandestine cells linked to Jaish e Mohammed and Ansar Ghaswat ul Hind. It was speculated that Umar could have acted in panic after the raids and detonated the bombs prematurely.

Perhaps that is what saved the capital from greater carnage. The car and its lethal cargo were part of a plan to launch a series of coordinated bomb blasts in the capital and other parts of the country, by a terrorist network of doctors, professionals and seemingly educated individuals based in Kashmir and Delhi. The uncovering of this network could be just the tip of the iceberg with other modules and networks still lying dormant in other parts of the country.

The attack brought back memories of the 13 September bombings of 2008 in Delhi, which saw synchronised blasts in a span of minutes at ISBT and four other locations in Delhi — the handiwork of the Indian Mujahideen. It harked to the even more horrific Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993, when 12 bomb blasts rocked the financial capital and killed over 250.