Former Pakistani Prime Minister has alleged that his country was directly involved in the November 10 car bombing outside Delhi’s Red Fort, an attack that killed 15 people and left many others injured. Chaudhary Anwarul Haq, who served as the ‘Prime Minister’ of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir until two days ago, told the PoK Assembly that he had previously warned India of retaliation.
“I had said earlier that if you continue to bleed Balochistan, we will respond from the Red Fort to the forests of Kashmir. With Allah’s grace, we have carried it out… our fighters have done it,” he claimed.
In his address, Haq reiterated that he had foretold such an attack, boasting that “our brave men have done it,” and went so far as to say India was unable to account for the casualties. Pakistan’s government has not officially reacted to Haq’s remarks. However, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif separately suggested recently that Islamabad could not rule out the possibility of an “all-out war” with India, adding that Pakistan remains on high alert amid rising regional tensions.
Pakistan has long accused India of fueling instability in Balochistan—an allegation New Delhi rejects, calling it an attempt to deflect attention from Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism. India has consistently denied any involvement in violence within the province.
Meanwhile, intelligence inputs have connected the Red Fort bombing—carried out using a Hyundai i20 packed with ammonium nitrate fuel oil—and the militant cell behind it to Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of the several Pakistan-supported extremist groups.
On the other hand, high-level security meetings have been held to discuss changes in strategy. During one of the meetings, the issue pertaining to electronic Intelligence was raised and how it needs to improve to flag local terror activity. This was one of the major concerns that was raised by the officials as the investigations into the Red Fort blast revealed that the Faridabad module members managed to remain off the radar for nearly three years.
The module was set up and the plan for a series of attacks in and around Delhi was hatched three years back. Since that time, the members of the Faridabad module, led mostly by doctors, had managed to conceal every activity and managed not to come under the scanner of the agencies.
The use of electronic Intelligence can track cross-border activity. However local modules do not have any electronic imprint and hence the Intelligence agencies find it very hard to track such activity. This is the reason why the Faridabad module managed to operate without being tracked.
When it comes to dealing with cross border activity, the agencies are able to pick up information using electronic Intelligence. In the case of the Faridabad module most of the conversations were within the group. The members of the module did keep in touch with some persons in Jammu and Kashmir, but that is not cross border activity. (With IANS inputs)
