Investigators arrest author of e-mail claiming responsibility, but bomb-makers and planter still elusive
National Investigation Agency (NIA) detectives have arrested two Jammu and Kashmir residents, who they believe participated in last week's bombing at the Delhi High Court that claimed 13 lives.
However, sources in the investigation said the perpetrators of the attack were still at large.
Kishtwar resident Amir Abbas, a seminary student, is alleged to have prepared an email, claiming responsibility for the attack. The mail was sent to newsrooms shortly after the bombing.
Abbas, the sources said, allegedly handed a portable disk drive to two other local residents on September 4 — three days before the bombing — with instructions to mail the text after learning of the attack.
Hilal Amin, also a resident of Kishtwar, a remote mountain town 248 km east of Jammu, was held on the suspicion of having helped draft the email.
Two high school students were charged in a Kishtwar court on Wednesday for sending the email from a local cybercafe?.
Abbas, investigators claim, was part of a larger network of conspirators involved in the attack.
NIA detectives are, however, yet to locate either the source of the explosives used in the bombing, or the men thought to have planted the bomb outside the court's visitors' entrance.
Even though the email has been reported to have claimed responsibility for the bombing on behalf of the Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami, a Pakistani terrorist group that was merged with the Al-Qaeda two years ago, it in fact bore no signature. The “from” field in the email was simply “Harkat ul” and the address harkatuljihadi20011@ gmail.com.
The demand
The email said the perpetrators' “demand is that Afzal Guru's death sentence should be repealed immediately, else we would target major High Courts and the Supreme court of India.”
Afzal Guru was sentenced to death for his role in the attack on the Parliament House in 2001.
Little is known about the motivations of the arrested men, but the investigation sources said Abbas was drawn into a jihadist cell after his uncle was shot dead by the police during the communally-charged 2008 Shrine Board violence in Kashmir
Recruitment pool
Police sources said the cell was drawn from members of the Tablighi Jamaat — a transnational movement for proselytisation that has no links to terrorism, but has often served as a recruitment pool for jihadists.
Both men are also related to surrendered members of terrorist groups in Jammu and Kashmir, but local intelligence sources said neither had a past record of criminal or terror-related activity.
Keywords: Delhi High Court blast, Hilal Amin, Amir Abbas, HuJI operative, NIA probe
The investigation agencies has to work in time limit manner. When all evidences have been gathered,the court must pronounce a judgment as quickly as possible. For this special courts are formed. The investgative agencies are also controlled by political Gurus and many time these Gurus are manipulating. Reliogon must not come in picture and the culprit must be dealt strongly. We are not listenting about Makkah Masjid blast etc where RSS people were involved. In my opinion and understanding, IM or any home grown militants cannot flourish unless and until root cause is not solved. That is the Rule of Law is need of the time irrespective of cast and religion. Look at US-Admin activities, they could not deactivated Al Qaeeda, becuase the US admin policies are double standard. Kashmir problem has to be solved now by any means. Omar Abdulah and others have been saying repeatedly. Indians cannot tolerate anymore.
We are hitting the wall again. I agree with Harish's comment. It is the judiciary system, that needs to be fast enough. In the name of fair trial, what is the benefit we are getting, inspite having enough evidences, knowing that they are the culprits, why they are not punished? Keeping in jail is not a punishment. Someone took that as granted and blackmailing govt saying that they will target further more...Where are we heading now?
Various intelligence, investigative and counter-terrorism wings, enforcement agencies, state police machineries and state government agencies has been linked together with a centralised data system called Natgrid for coordination, sharing of information and intelligence on all terror organisations, networks, terror attacks, links, members, sources and sponsers, and other related things. It has indeed begun to operate from May 2011, but still we were caught off guard by the recent terror attack and clueless about the perpetrators. But initial investigations has yielded some results, let's hope the agencies crack this case effectively and quickly.
I agree with Mr Rathore. These students can easily be charged under IT Act for sending of annoying emails and threats but these are silly charges on a totally different matter compared to the seriousness of what happened in Delhi. Where is the real progress in catching masterminds ? Where is the intelligence ?
All the stories by Home ministry seems to be a strategy to protect the culprits. A few days before, it was told that a guy from West Bengal has mailed to media and concern authorities. His name was released to press. Investigation agencies have told Sunny Sharma is involved. Indian Government has been trying to protect the safron terrorists.
Prima facie, the fact that the email was distributed 3 days before the attack,throws some weight behind some kind of involvement of the persons aforementioned.At the same time it looks almost clear that these people are not the actual planners for the attacks and it is going to be a tough job for NIA to reach to the actual perpetrators.What is needed to be done is to launch parallel operations on different fronts in the probe and use all the resources at our disposal.
Something is better than nothing, but surely the NIA as the premier anti-terror agency in India must realize that these people that they have "busted" are simply a single cell. There are thousands of such cells, some sleeper others active, in J&K.Unless the ideological head or the operational head behind these cells is apprehended and put away, such cells will go on being formed and pose a constant threat to the State. If direct apprehension is not impossible due to problems beyond our control (i.e. another State harboring the masterminds) we need to take steps to discredit them sharply so that their influence is shattered beyond repair. These steps need a competent anti-terror agency, a treasure trove of intelligence and an absence of political dilettantes at the helm of the anti-terror operation.All due congratulations to the NIA but what they've done is pretty basic stuff which anyone with a reasonably sound common sense and access to the equipment and authority can do.
I totally agree with you sir, NIA should also take same step in regards with other emails as it is not proved that they have any link with the terrorist group.
I wonder what happened to the guy who sent the third email from Gujrat on behalf of IM. He said, I sent it for fun and to make people aware? Why he was not charged and arrested. What a double standard?
I am surprised that Indian agencies are not competent enough to infiltrate these terror organizations. In US for example FBI has infiltrated most of the right wing (extremist) organizations. As a result though there is a lot of chatter about what they want to do to the rest of us, they are unable to act. One of the problems with the Indian bureaucratic system is that the power is concentrated at the top. This "Sir ji" who is insulated from the field activities has no clue of the ground realities and in no position to supervise or offer any guidance to the field operators. Unfortunately the field operators are at the lowest rung of administration and I am sure that no one asks for their input in the effective ways to combat the problem. Unless this idiotic system is completely overhauled India would remain where it is, if not slip to a situation akin to Somalia.
The problem is that nobody is accountable for the security of the citizens. It has become abominable that the ruling class gets away with condemning the attack. The citizens get on with their lives to live another day in a hope that their time has not come yet. The time has come we start asking tough questions to the ruling class of this country.
I have a question. What about Mumbai blasts investigation? Still no clues?
If we go by the news that the blast was carried out to repeal the death sentence of Afzal Guru, then the real culprit behind the death of 13 and other injured is our own judiciary system and the handeling of such cases by the Govt. You keep the terrorists in jail without prosecuting them and the supporters of those terorists will be continuously killing the innocent people to get them released. The cases related to terorism must be handlled by separate system of judiciary for fast disposal so that we can at least avoid such type of incidents in the name of those who are in jail. Mind you there are so many terorists are enjoying in different jails of India and Kasab is one among them. May God save those, "would be victims", and indian judicial system. We should be ashamed to see our own people are celebrating when the Madras HC stayed the order to execute the death penalty of those three involved in killing of Rajiv Gandhi and several others.It means that we are supporting them.
An email can be traced; that's how NIA has got these to operatives. It does not mean that one can reach the mastermind and perpetrators so easily. A terror module has many components. NIA has reached the foot soldiers doing PR functions. What about other emails and SMSs claiming involvement of other terror outfits? It is the most embrassing moment for Indian police and investigative agencies - no intelligence - pre or post event is coming their way. Number of unresolved cases are piling up. Try harder.
Please Email the Editor