NEW DELHI: Indian authorities said on Sunday that a deadly car blast in New Delhi last week was an attack carried out by a “suicide bomber,” announcing the arrest of an accomplice.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the country’s counter-terrorism law enforcement body, said the attacker and the second suspect were both from Indian-administered Kashmir, where police have carried out sweeping raids in recent days.
Announcing “a breakthrough” in the investigation, the NIA said it had arrested Amir Rashid Ali, describing him as an accomplice of the “suicide bomber” under whose name “the car involved in the attack was registered.”
He had come to Delhi to “facilitate the purchase of the car which was eventually used as a vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to trigger the blast,” according to a statement from the counter-terrorism agency.
It identified the driver as Umar Un Nabi, a resident of Kashmir who was an assistant professor in general medicine at a university in the northern state of Haryana.
The explosion on Monday took place near a busy metro station close to the landmark Red Fort in the capital’s Old Delhi quarter, where the prime minister delivers the annual Independence Day address.
A hospital official has said the blast killed 12 people. It was unclear whether Nabi was included in the toll.
The NIA’s statement said the attack “claimed 10 innocent lives and left 32 others injured.”
The NIA said it had seized another vehicle belonging to Nabi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the attack a “conspiracy,” and his government vowed to bring the “perpetrators, their collaborators and their sponsors” to justice.
It was the most significant security incident since April 22, when 26 mainly Hindu civilians were killed at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, triggering clashes with Pakistan.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory in full. Tensions remain high between New Delhi and Islamabad.
