Two armed men on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire outside the historic Jama Masjid in the Walled City of Delhi on Sunday morning, injuring two Taiwanese nationals who were about to board a tourist bus.
A red alert has been sounded as the attack comes barely two weeks ahead of the Commonwealth Games here.
Just a few hours after the incident there was another security scare as a Maruti 800 car went up in flames about 100 metres from the ancient mosque.
Though an e-mail, purportedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen to a radio station, claimed responsibility for the incident, the police have ruled out the involvement of any organised terror group.
“Investigation so far does not indicate any specific target or the involvement of any specific terror group. The police have recovered seven empty 9 mm cartridges from the spot,” said Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat.
On the possible link between the attack and the fire in a car, Mr. Bhagat said: “We found a pressure cooker and a circuit in the car. It is a crude circuit. It could be the handiwork of some disgruntled group. No explosives or inflammables were found. It may or may not be linked to the earlier attack on the foreigners.”
The attack took place outside Gate No. 3 of the mosque, just a few metres away from the local police station, when two men on the motorcycle opened fire around 11.30 a.m.
An eye-witness said: “I rushed out of my house on hearing the gun shots. I saw a pillion rider on a motorcycle firing in the direction of the mosque. He fired a few shots in the air and then trained his weapon on a group of foreigners standing near a bus. A rickshaw-puller hurled stones at them and a constable from a nearby picket gave chase but the motorcyclists escaped through the narrow lanes.”
The injured — Zewei (40) and Chiang (38) — were taken to the Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Narayan Hospital and are said to be out of danger.
