Monday’s blast targeting an Israeli diplomatic vehicle is the first instance of collaboration between militants here and an external group that could well be Hezbollah.
This emerged during a conference call on Tuesday between Intelligence Bureau director Nehchal Sandhu and Israel’s Mossad chief Tamir Prado.
The Indians told the Israelis while there was no clear evidence of Hezbollah operating here, outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Indian Mujahideen were sympathetic to Hezbollah and had targeted Jewish and Israeli interests earlier.
Mossad has provided a crucial lead: an “extremely sophisticated switcher was used to trigger the magnetic explosive” — of a kind not used in India earlier. A three-member Mossad team will arrive here Wednesday to assist Indian agencies, but home ministry sources clarified it will not join the investigations, but only provide their inputs.
“Mossad was of the view that both the hardware for the bomb and an expert to assemble it came from outside; while the execution was carried out by a local module. It is clear the bomb has not been assembled by an Indian terror group as they are not equipped to do so,” a senior intelligence official said.
The Israelis suggested this might explain why though the bomb was sophisticated, its execution went a bit haywire as the bomb planter attached the explosive on the right side of the Innova’s rear hatchback door instead of the left.
The Innova’s fuel tank is on the left side, and its explosion would have caused havoc.
