8 Die in Blast Near Delhi’s Red Fort

New Delhi: Just over six months after the Pahalgam terror attack, a high-intensity blast ripped through a slow-moving car outside the Red Fort Metro station in New Delhi on Monday evening, which claimed at least eight lives and injured several others. Multi-agency teams rushed to the spot to ascertain the nature of the blast and to collect preliminary forensics as they seek to unravel the larger plot. The blast took place a day before the final phase of the Bihar Assembly elections on Tuesday.

Twenty-four people were injured in the blast that took place on a busy evening as the area was milling with people. The injured were taken to LNJP hospital, a few kilometres away. The police, meanwhile, has detained the owner of the vehicle.

A high alert has been sounded in Delhi and several parts of northern India after the blasts. Security has been stepped up at all border points of the city, as well as the adjoining National Capital Region, with vehicle checking intensified in all areas. An alert has also been sounded at all railway stations in the Delhi-NCR area, the Northern Railway said.

Soon after the blast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation and expressed condolences over the deaths. He also said he has reviewed with home minister Amit Shah and other officials about the situation. “Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the blast in Delhi earlier this evening. May the injured recover at the earliest. Those affected are being assisted by the authorities. Reviewed the situation with home minister Amit Shah Ji and other officials,” the PM said.

Mr Shah said investigators are keeping all options open while probing the blast, which took place in a Hyundai i20 car at a traffic signal near Red Fort at around 7 pm. It damaged three to four other vehicles and injured pedestrians and other people who were travelling in autorickshaws. All angles are being probed by the investigators, and no possibility is ruled out, he said after meeting some of the injured at LNJP hospital.

Asked whether it was a terrorist attack, Mr Shah said: “It is difficult to say what caused the incident. Until the samples recovered from the blast site are analysed by forensics and the NSG, we can't say anything. But we are not ruling out anything and investigating all angles.”

The home minister said eight people lost their lives and several others were injured. Teams of the Delhi police, NIA, NSG and forensics have started the probe, he said, and hoped that the exact details of the blast would be unearthed soon.

After LNJP, Mr Shah also visited the blast site, and he added: “I will hold a high-level meeting tomorrow with top officials to analyse the explosion.”

Immediately after the blast, the home minister spoke to Delhi police chief Satish Golcha and Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Kumar Deka to take stock of the situation. The CISF has put all Delhi-NCR installations under its security cover on “high alert”.

Notably, no terror outfit has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The police is scanning CCTV footage to determine the route of the vehicle before the blast occurred. It is also questioning locals and asking eyewitnesses to share any information about any suspicious activity in the lead-up to the incident.

Mobile dump data are being gathered, and the dossiers of suspected terrorists are being scanned.

Mr Golcha said the car, in which the blast took place, had some occupants. “There was a blast around 6.52 pm in a slow-moving Hyundai i-20 vehicle at a traffic signal near the Red Fort Metro station. There were passengers in the vehicle. Other vehicles got affected. All agencies are taking stock of the situation,” he said.

“We have not found any pellet or puncture in the body of the injured, which is unusual in a bomb blast. We are investigating all angles.” Police sources said the car was registered in the name of one Nadeem Khan and bore a Haryana number plate.

Panic gripped the entire area as fire billowed from burning cars following the explosion. Ten fire tenders were rushed to the spot as the police cordoned off the area, the Delhi Fire Services said. The blaze caused by the blast was brought under control by 7.29 pm, officials said.

According to a fire department official, six cars, two e-rickshaws and one autorickshaw were gutted in the fire. The blast was so powerful that it shattered the window panes of vehicles parked several metres away.

The blast in Delhi occurred hours after the recovery of around 360 kg of suspected ammonium nitrate and a cache of arms and ammunition from a Kashmiri doctor’s rented accommodation in Faridabad, on Delhi’s outskirts. The Haryana police, in coordination with the Jammu and Kashmir police, had arrested Dr Muzammil Ganaie from Faridabad’s Dhauj area.