No technical link between Israel embassy blast, Ambani security scare: Officials

According to the agencies, the Mumbai case is a local affair while the Israel embassy bomb blast has cyber markers in Syria and Afghanistan.

Counter-terrorism agencies have found no link between the improvised explosive device (IED) blasted outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi on January 29 and the explosive-laden sports utility vehicle found near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani a month later on February 25. While in both cases, a non-existent organisation called Jaish-ul-Hind has taken responsibility for the cyber message posted in case of Mumbai, the agencies have informed the government that there is no technical link between the two cases. “The posting of the message on February 27 night on Telegram messaging app in the Mumbai case with Jaish-ul-Hind taking responsibility is an after-thought. The Mumbai case has no link with IED blast outside Israel embassy,” said a former Mumbai Police commissioner.

Investigators have traced the Mumbai message to a phone number used by Indian Mujahideen terrorist Tehseen Akhtar, who is currently lodged in high-security Tihar Jail. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Investigators have traced the Mumbai message to a phone number used by Indian Mujahideen terrorist Tehseen Akhtar, who is currently lodged in high-security Tihar Jail. While serious questions are being raised as to how a known jihadist had access to a smartphone in Tihar Jail, CT agencies are quite clear that there is no revival of the IM group even though its founders—Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal—are active in Karachi. It is not very clear whether another founder member Amir Raza Khan is dead or alive but he was last sighted in Karachi two years ago. Tehseen Akhtar was the head of the Ranchi module of IM, which was responsible for targeting the election rally of then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi at Gandhi maidan in Patna on October 27, 2013.

While serious questions are being raised as to how a known jihadist had access to a smartphone in Tihar Jail, CT agencies are quite clear that there is no revival of the IM group even though its founders—Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal—are active in Karachi.

While the IED used in the Israel embassy attack was remotely triggered through a line of sight device, there was no detonator found in the parked SUV in Mumbai. This means that Mumbai was just to scare perhaps part of an extortion racket with incarcerated IM terrorists trying to revive the homegrown terror by taking responsibility for the incident.