Al Qaeda affiliate claims Ghazipur bomb scare, claim false says Delhi Police
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National Security Guard officials with a sniffer dog at the Ghazipur market on Friday, January 14 (Image Credit: PTI)
Following the National Security Guard's confirmation of the use of RDX in the Ghazipur bomb scare, Kashmir-based Al Qaeda affiliate Mujahideen Ghazwat-ul-Hind (MGH) claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday. However the claims are false and may be aimed at derailing the investigation, senior officials from the Delhi Police told Hindustan Times.
"During social media monitoring, we have come across a letter with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind claiming responsibility for the attempted attack. This group is relatively a newer outfit. We haven't found any authentic source to the note so far," said a senior police officer to HT.
The letter doing rounds on social media also mentioned that it was due to some technical error that the device did not explode. But it does not mean that the same will happen even the next time, MGH said. The letter was posted online via encrypted means making it difficult to trace.
According to the Hindustan Times report, senior officials believe that the MGH may be a front for another Kashmir-based terrorist organisation known as Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), which was formed by former Hizbul Mujahideen operative and Kashmiri terrorist Zakir Rashid Bhat, popularly known as Zakir Musa, who was killed by security forces in an encounter in May 2019.
Delhi Police's Anti-Terror Squad and national security agencies are already probing suspected Pakistani ISI links to the bombing as well as recoveries of almost 20 kg of RDX from Punjab and border areas of Jammu and Kashmir in the past week. The Ghazipur bomb was found and safely detonated before it could go off. The Ghazipur bomb was part of a shipment of 24 which Pakistan has been pushing into India via land and sea, intelligence reports alleged.
It was on Friday, that a bag full of explosives was recovered from Ghazipur flower market around 10.30 AM, after which the entire market was vacated and the IED defused by the National Security Guard (NSG).
On Monday, NSG confirmed that it was a mixture of RDX and ammonia nitrate attached to a sophisticated device to cause the explosion.
With the national capital gearing up for Republic Day, and Assembly Elections due to take place in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur next month, security agencies are on high alert to the possibility of terrorist activity in these regions.