NEW DELHI: As India’s anti-terror sleuths investigated three non-Muslim men in the Delhi High Court blast case on Wednesday, Home Minister P. Chidambaram raised the possibility of home-grown modules being involved.
“We can no longer point to cross-border terrorism as a source of terror attacks in India,” Mr Chidambaram told the BBC in an interview. He said the authorities were still trying to verify emails allegedly sent by two groups claiming responsibility for last week’s attack that killed at least 12 and injured many more.
The two groups that have claimed they carried out the attack are Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), which is accused of links to Al Qaeda, and the Indian Mujahideen.
However, the Indian Express on Wednesday said the NIA, the recently formed federal investigating agency, was interrogating an entirely different set of men picked up from different locations in West Bengal in connection with the alleged emails. One name was given as that of Sunny Sharma. He was being brought to Delhi from Kolkata.
The report said that tracking the sim cards of the phones involved, the Special Task Force on Sept 10 picked up two suspected persons, including a teenager from Arambag.
Quoting sources, it said a team of STF reached Arambag early in the morning. They picked up 18-year-old Souvick Sahani of Dakshinpara, Mohanpur in Arambag, and 26-year-old Prabir Kundu of Ratnapally in Arambag. The two men were brought to Kolkata for further investigation.
Hindu extremists are being probed for a number of bombings in India, including the false flag attack on the Samjhauta Express which they blamed on Muslims.
Mr Chidambaram said even though HuJI had claimed responsibility for the blast, the group had not been active in India for a while.
“There have been three major attacks in India recently — in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. In respect of the Mumbai and Pune attacks, we are fairly certain they were carried out by Indian modules or India-based modules,” he was quoted as saying.
In the past, India has mostly blamed Pakistan-based groups for attacks on its soil.
“That threat remains – but we must also look at Indian modules or India-based modules which are capable of carrying out terror attacks,” he said.
Mr Chidambaram said the country’s proximity to Pakistan and Afghanistan was a cause for worry and India was concerned about how to prevent the’ radicalisation’ of its youth.
“The government can build capacity and extend the intelligence network, but policing is a very complex task and there will be cases where the terrorist is able to slip through the cracks,” he said.
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