DM Monitoring
India’s federal anti-terror agency on Sunday said it had arrested a resident of Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir (IIOJK) who it accused of conspiring with the driver of a car that exploded in Delhi last week, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20 others.
The National Investigation Agency said it had arrested Amir Rashid Ali in Delhi, adding the car used in the attack was registered in his name.
The NIA accused Ali of conspiring with the alleged suicide bomber, who it identified as Umar Un Nabi, a resident of IIOJK’s Pulwama district.
It said Ali came to Delhi to facilitate the purchase of the car, which was used as a “vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device to trigger the blast.”
The agency said it had seized another vehicle belonging to Nabi for examination. So far, it has interrogated 73 witnesses, including those injured in the blast.
Last week, the Indian government said it was treating the car blast as a “terror incident” and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice as swiftly as possible.
The blast outside Delhi’s historic Red Fort was the first such explosion in the heavily guarded city since 2011.
It was also the most significant security incident since April 22, when 26 civilians were killed at the tourist site of Pahalgam in IIOJK.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Delhi blast a “conspiracy”, and vowed that those responsible would face justice.
India’s Home Minister, Amit Shah, said he had instructed officials “to hunt down each and every culprit behind this incident”.
The blast occurred four days after an explosion rocked IIOJK’s Srinagar, killing at least nine people and injuring over two dozen.
Indian officials said that the blast took place when a stockpile of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station, resulting in most fatalities among policemen and forensic team members inspecting the explosives.
