Eight people died and 24 were injured after a high-intensity blast in a car near Delhi’s Red Fort – a popular tourist destination and one of the most crowded parts of the national capital – Monday night.
The vehicle exploded outside Gate 1 of the Lal Qila metro station. The intensity of the blast was such that nearby vehicles also caught fire. Horrific visuals showed a van with its doors blasted off and a completely mangled car, and shocked eyewitnesses told NDTV of body parts lying on the road.
Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha told reporters, “Today at 6.52 pm a slow-moving vehicle stopped at the red light. An explosion happened in that vehicle and, due to the explosion, nearby vehicles were also damaged. Some people have died and some have been injured. The situation is being monitored. Home Minister (Amit Shah) called us.. information is being shared with him…”
Shah, in turn, briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the blast.
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The nature of the blast is unclear at this time, but all state security agencies are on high alert, and security has also been ramped up at the Indo-Nepal border, where stationed Border Security Force troops and intelligence officials are monitoring all visitors crossing the open border with that country.
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The priority, sources told NDTV, is to provide medical care to the injured – nearly two dozen ambulances have been rushed to the blast site – and to secure the area.
Forensic and technical experts will then take over to collect evidence.
Several nearby vehicles caught fire after the initial explosion.
The blast came hours after Jammu and Kashmir Police recovered nearly 3,000kg of explosives from two residential buildings in Faridabad in Haryana.
The materials – which included 350kg of ammonium nitrate, a commonly-used fertiliser that can be turned into a deadly bomb – were seized based on intel from arrested J&K-based doctor, Adil Rather.
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Rather had been arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur Sunday after CCTV footage showed him pasting posters in support of terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed across Srinagar.
The investigation also revealed the name of another medical professional from J&K, Muzammil Shakeel, who was working at the Al-Falah Hospital in Faridabad. According to hospital records he lived on campus. However, police found at least two off-campus homes linked to him.
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When these were raided, the cops were shocked to find 12 suitcases packed with explosive material. Items related to explosive devices, such as detonators and timers, were also found.
An as-yet-unnamed female colleague, in whose Maruti Suzki Swift Dzire sub-compact sedan an assault rifle and some ammunition had been stored, has also been arrested. A second rifle and more ammunition was found inside a staff locker at the GMC in Anantnag, where Rather worked till last year.
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Earlier today, referring to the raids, arrests, and recoveries in J&K and Faridabad, the police said they had cracked an inter-state and transnational terrorist module linked to at least two banned terrorist organisations – the Pak-based Jaish and the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an al-Qaeda affiliated group.
Apart from Rather, Shakeel, and the woman doctor, five others have been arrested so far.
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