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New Delhi: The national capital is currently weeping for the loss of lives, following the horrendous car blast that occurred near the Red Fort metro station on Monday. The thing which is even more concerning is that the blast may be connected to the recent arrest which took place in Gujarat, UP and Haryana, respectively. The police previously arrested a Gujrat doctor for possessing a potential bioweapon. Two people from J and K were respectively, arrested from UP and Haryana. The former was apprehended for putting up posters of Jaish-e- Muhammad while the latter was caught with 2,900 kg of explosive substances, including 350 kg of ammonium nitrate, and two assault rifles.
All these arrests were followed by a terrific blast on Monday evening, a high-intensity blast in Delhi's crowded Red Fort area. Nine people were killed and 20 injured after a Hyundai i20 car with Haryana number plates - HR26 CE 7674 - rolled up to the Subhash Marg traffic signal at Gate 1 of the Lal Qila metro station and exploded. The force emblazed 22 nearby vehicles and ripped apart the bodies of those killed.
Are the blast and the arrests connected? Is this all, or is there more to come? Here’s what we know so far.
On Sunday, Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed of Adalaj, a town close to Gandhinagar, was taken into custody by the Gujarat Police's Anti-Terror Squad. Saiyed had three handguns, including an Italian Beretta and two Austrian Glock pistols, along with ammunition for these weapons.
Four liters of castor oil, a commonly used and accessible product that can also be used to manufacture ricin—a highly toxic toxin that kills by entering the body's cells and preventing the creation of critical proteins, resulting in cell death and organ failure—were also recovered by the police.
According to Gujarat ATS, the doctor may have been prepping for a poison-based terrorist attack on sensitive locations in either Delhi, Lucknow, or Ahmedabad.Subsequently, Shaheen Shahid, a third physician, was also taken into custody; according to the police, Shahid permitted Shakeel to keep an assault rifle and some ammo in her Maruti Suzuki Swift.
Shakeel, a doctor at Al-Falah Hospital in Faridabad, became the second medic from J&K arrested in the operation. Hours earlier, Dr. Adil Ahmad Rather was detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur after CCTV footage showed him putting up posters praising the banned terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed in J&K’s Nowgam.
Shakeel was the other man.
Subsequently, Shaheen Shahid, a third physician, was also taken into custody; according to the police, Shahid permitted Shakeel to keep an assault rifle and some ammo in her Maruti Suzuki Swift.
Another team in J and K went to the hospital in Jammu and Kashmir went headed to the hospital where Adil previously worked. The investigation team recovered an assault rifle and an ammunition gun from a locker. We also know one of the car's owners was a man called Tariq from J&K's Pulwama. He is currently under police custody.
Of course, this is only conjecture. There is currently no confirmation that the Delhi Red Fort automobile explosion was a terrorist act, nor is there a clear connection between any of these arrests and the explosion.
Following the attack, Delhi is on high alert, as are multiple states, including UP and Rajasthan, which share borders with Delhi, and Bihar, which is conducting the second phase of polling on Tuesday.
