With all indications of it being an execution by terror modules, the powerful blast near the Red Fort metro station on the smog-filled evening of November 10, points towards a deliberate plan to carry out an attack on the heart of New Delhi, far away from the ‘ground zeros’ of Kashmir.
And the Red Fort is indeed the centre of Delhi, besides the heavily guarded and secured zone of Lutyen’s Delhi, which houses all important administrative and government buildings, including Parliament.
At last count, 13 people had died in the attack. The dead include the assailants, believed to be three in number, leaving the possibility open as to whether the explosives were being ferried to another destination, with the bombs going off “accidentally”.
The ferrying of the explosives may have been prompted by the recovery and seizure of about 2,900 kilograms of explosive material, weapons, and IED-making components from Haryana’s Faridabad, on the outskirts of Delhi, just the day before November 9.
The shift in tactics reflects a plan to carry out attacks in urban centres outside Kashmir—much different from the earlier tactic that began around 2023 with the aim to inflict as many casualties among security forces as possible by luring them into an area before trapping them with volleys of heavy gunfire. The terrain was usually the hills and forests, with the terrorists already well-entrenched in vantage positions, yet with adequate cover from the returning fire.
While the investigation is on, preliminary reports are indicative of the involvement of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH)—both outfits being headquartered in and aided by Pakistan.
Another key facet of this terror strategy is the use of white-collar professionals—doctors, in this latest terror module bust—in executing these attacks. Educated, well-earning, and articulate professionals would attract the least attention from the security forces.
Significantly, on October 31, speaking at the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on Governance in the national capital, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had said that terrorism had been effectively countered with the last major attack in the hinterland taking place in 2013. He said: “Except for Jammu and Kashmir, which had been a theatre of a proxy war or a covert warfare for Pakistan, which is a different ballgame, the whole country has remained secure from terrorist attacks”.
The busting has revealed a well-organised terror network that spread from Kashmir towns like Pulwama, Kulgam, and Nowgam to the National Capital Region (NCR) territory. Already, several doctors hailing from Kashmir have been taken into custody.
