A Pakistan-based terrorist group that is closely linked to al Qaeda has claimed credit for a bombing today that killed 11 people and wounded scores more at a security checkpoint outside the Delhi High Court.
A bomb planted in a briefcase was detonated at a queue where lawyers and other visitors obtain security passes. Police said that 11 people have been killed so far and 76 more were wounded, some critically. The blast left a “deep crater” in the ground.
The Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, or HUJI, said it detonated the bomb to force India to repeal a death sentence of Afzal Guru, who has been placed on death row for the December 2001 terror assault on the Indian Parliament that killed six policemen, a civilian, and five members of the assault team. The Pakistan-based Lashakr-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad carried out the 2001 attack in Delhi.
HUJI sent an email to Indian news agencies immediately after the attack to claim it.
“We owe the responsibility of todays blasts at high court delhi….. our demand is that Afzal Guru’s death sentence should be repealede immediately else we would target major high courts & THE SUPREME COURT OF… [sic],” the email read, according to the Hindustan Times.
HUJI is an al Qaeda-linked group that operates in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The US designated HUJI as a terrorist entity in 2010, and its leader, Ilyas Kashmiri, was also added to the list of global terrorists.
Kashmiri has also been linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, which has viewed him as an asset due to his prowess in fighting the Indians in Jammu and Kashmir.
The US believes Kashmiri was killed in a Predator airstrike in South Waziristan on June 3. But questions have emerged about Kashmiri’s death, as the martyrdom statement is suspect and a photo of Kashmiri’s purported corpse was actually that of a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who was killed during the terror assault on Mumbai in November 2008. Indian intelligence officials now believe that Kashmiri faked his death in an attempt to dodge the Predators and the US special operations forces who entered Pakistan to kill bin Laden. [For more information on problems with reports of Kashmiri’s death, see LWJ report, Questions emerge over HUJI’s statement on al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri’s death, and Threat Matrix reports, Is Ilyas Kashmiri really dead? and Kashmiri faked death: Indian intelligence.]
For more information on Ilyas Kashmiri and Brigade 313, see LWJ reports, Al Qaeda Brigade 313 website goes online, and US adds Ilyas Kashmiri to list of designated terrorists.
3 Comments
Bill, just to clarify, the explosion was not at a security check-point as you and i would understand that phrase. These were people who had queued up at a mere reception-desk/window kind of a place where they issue ‘passes’ as a prerequisite to enter the main building of the Court. So no, no real security.
Sadly, thats a typical Indian story. Utter lack of precaution and preparedness, and this one coming after another explosion as recently as May!
India is too large to secure its streets, cities, even key likely public-place targets with total effectiveness. But with the unwieldy bureaucracy in charge, she hasn’t got a chance.
Ilyas Kashmiri strikes again! And Masood Azhar is back in business, openly raising money from inside Pakistan. But the ISI helped us get another Al Qaeda No. 3 (like the drummers in Spinal Tap, the No. 3’s are not destined for long in this world), and so all is once again well. Dennis Blair even wants to give the PakMil their finger on the predator drone missile button! What was that definition of insanity again?
If I will be selected the one of the personnel who will combing and clean the pakistan, I am ready to sacrifice myself for my nation, India and kill every terrorist and their supporters not even a common man.