NEW DELHI – The deadly car explosion that killed at least eight people in India’s capital is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, law enforcement officials said Tuesday, raising concerns it could escalate tensions in the region.
Raja Banthia, a deputy commissioner of police in Delhi’s north district, said the explosion is being investigated under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, a law largely used to deal with terrorism-related activities.
Indian officials spent the past day collecting evidence at the blast area and found “traces of explosives,” which will be analyzed over the next two days, according to Banthia. The forensic team on-site also collected body parts from the car for investigation, he added. At least six bodies have been identified and sent to a nearby hospital for postmortem examination, Banthia said.
Senior government officials have refrained from calling the explosion a terrorist attack, but have vowed to find those responsible.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The conspirators behind this will not be spared,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public address in Bhutan on Tuesday, where he is on a two-day trip, in an apparent escalation of rhetoric surrounding the blast. “All those responsible will be brought to justice.”
India’s home minister, Amit Shah, said the government will “hunt down each and every culprit behind this incident,” in a post on X on Tuesday. “Everyone involved in this act will face the full wrath of our agencies.”
A day earlier, Shah said the government was “keeping all angles open” until forensic analysis is carried out. “It is very difficult to say what caused the incident,” he said.
While no one has taken responsibility for the explosion, the blast’s potential link to terrorism brings concerns that it could lead to an increase in regional tensions. In April, militants killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the attack, which Islamabad denied, and India conducted its most serious cross-border attack in decades.
Shortly before 7 p.m. local time on Monday evening, a slow-moving car exploded near the Red Fort monument, leaving behind fiery wreckage and mangled bodies strewn across the street, according to footage from the scene. Around 20 people were injured, according to local news reports.
The explosion came during the evening rush hour in a highly congested part of India’s capital region, colloquially referred to as Old Delhi, known for its highly trafficked bazaars, narrow alleyways and famous food shops.
The car was identified as a Hyundai, and the registered owner was detained for questioning, local news reported.
The Red Fort, Metro stations, government buildings and New Delhi’s international airport were placed on high alert, according to India’s Central Industrial Security Force. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi advised Americans to avoid areas surrounding the Red Fort.
The attack happened the same day the Jammu and Kashmir police, the force in Indian-administered Kashmir, said it “busted an interstate and transnational terror module” with ties to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani militant group, and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an al-Qaeda affiliated militant organization.
Law enforcement arrested seven people and seized two pistols, two rifles and material to make improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The police have not linked this raid to the Delhi explosion.
On Tuesday, Shah met with the director of India’s intelligence bureau, the Delhi police commissioner and the director general of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to discuss the government’s response to the blast, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The director general of Jammu and Kashmir’s police attended the meeting virtually, and the investigation has been handed over to the NIA, the agency added.
Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers latched on to the latest explosion to criticize Modi’s national security record and the government’s investigation.
Supriya Shrinate, a spokeswoman for India’s main opposition Congress party, told a local news agency on Tuesday that “serious lapses in security are happening. The country feels it is not in strong hands.”
India’s capital region experienced a spate of terrorist attacks in the 1990s and early 2000s, according to the South Asian Terrorism Portal. The last lethal attack in the capital happened in 2011, when a briefcase bomb exploded outside New Delhi’s high court and killed 14 people, according to the organization.