NEW DELHI: Concurring with Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement that no one country could be named as being involved in Monday’s bomb attack on an Israeli Embassy car that injured the Defence Attache’s wife, Home Secretary Singh said: “We have no evidence to name any country. It is premature to take any country’s name.”
Minister of External Affairs S M Krishna on Tuesday hinted that India does not want to get sandwiched between two countries.
“India has not failed, this kind of an isolated incident can happen in any democratic country of the world,” Krishna said on Tuesday.
“We have close relations with Israel and good relations with other countries too. We won’t call it a war. India doesn’t want to get sucked into action between two countries,” Krishna added. India is maintaining constant touch with Israel and, following the blast, the security of all Jewish establishments in the country has been beefed up. The Centre also told the states hosting diplomatic missions of Israel, the United States and other Western countries, to beef up security there. The Home Ministry has also ad vised States not to allow parking near any missions and make alternative arrangements for it. The executors of the terror strike are still, however, unidentified, as the motorcyclist, who eyewitnesesses said attached a magnetic explosive device to the car at a traffic signal, has managed to evade the CCTVs (closed circuit television cameras) in the area surrounding the Prime Minister’s residence on Race Course Road and the Israeli Embassy. “We don’t have any idea who planted it. There is no material to show involvement of any country,” he said.
What increases worries for Indian counter-terrorism outfits is that intelligence agencies had no inputs regarding Monday’s terrorist strike, in which for the first time in India a sophisticated device was used. The ‘stick-on’ device exploded within seconds after being magnetically attached to the metal body of the car.
After examination of the blast site, forensic experts have concluded that neither any battery nor circuit was used in the bomb, but traces of aluminium were found from the spot. The experts also ruled out the use of RDX in the explosion.