The Harkat-ul-Jihadi email has given a new twist to the Delhi high court blast. It is now being claimed that this outfit which operates out of Bangladesh had carried out these blasts in order to protest the hanging of Afzal Guru. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
While this is a very premature revelation, the National Investigating Agency, which has a 20-member team investigating the case, says that it will probe this angle as well, since at this point, no claims can be dismissed.
The question now is how strong the HuJI is presently, and would they be willing to undertake a blast at this moment, considering the fact there is so much heat on them internationally.
A year ago, the United States had imposed a ban on the outfit, following which, their activities had slowed down. However, since the last one month, the HuJI has been making attempts to regroup and there were various instances to show that their activities were becoming India-centric.
In this regard it may be recalled that their first attempt to wreck havoc after the ban on them was when they gave an open threat to bomb the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi.
The plan, according to the Intelligence Bureau was clear that they were ready to let the HuJI carry out more activity in India while it was planning on concentrating on international ventures.
In this regard, it would also be interesting to study the latest dossier of the IB on the HuJi which makes a very clear mention that the outfit's activities in India are on the rise, and in the past six months, they have recruited nearly 200 cadres, mainly from West Bengal.
There is also an added record to show that some 150 persons from WB had gone missing during this period. Investigating agencies are still piecing together the clues.
The dossier further goes on to point out that the HujI, apart from carrying out blasts in India, was also looking at some high-profile abductions.
While HuJI's open-ended statement one must not also lose track of the fact that such statements will only help this outfit further their battle in Kashmir.
"It is a very possible angle, but it's too early to come to a conclusion," an IB source said.
The other angle with regard to HuJI which is being spoken about is the growing ties between Bangladesh and India, which have put a break on their operations. The cooperation between the security forces of the two is also making operations difficult for HuJI.
The IB confirms that HuJI's recruitment drive was at an all time high.
"They have appointed foot soldiers and also suicide bombers by paying nearly 10 to 15 lakh each, and this only shows that they were serious about their India operation," said the IB source.
Apart from the recruitments, they have also managed to set up several sleeper cells and modules in West Bengal which can be activated at a moment's notice as and when needed.
If it is established that it was indeed the HuJI behind the Delhi high court blast, then the investigators would have other things to consider.
"The HujI usually plans things on a higher scale, but this appears to be a hurried attack," said the source.
It looks like that they were testing the waters and also used the prime minister's visit to Bangladesh as an excuse.
However, they were careful enough not to say that out openly and stuck to the Afzal Guru issue, since that is a more emotive one.
