National Investigative Agency chief S C Sinha, has confirmed that the agency is verifying an email sent by harkatuljihadi2011@gmail.com which claims responsibility for Wednesday's blast outside the Delhi high court and demands that Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case, should not be hanged to death. The mail was sent at 1:14 pm to several media houses.
It reads, "We owe responsibility of today's blast at high court Delhi... our demand is that Afzal Guru's death sentence should be repealed immediately else we target major high courts & the Supreme Court of India "
While this is not the first time a terror email has been sent out, "this time around it appears to be a quick job on the part of the sender," reveals a source at the NIA. Unlike the previous elaborate mails sent out by the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, this one was a short two-liner.
The sender's list as compared to that of the Indian Mujahideen is also very basic. This particular mail has been sent to a few select media houses like the NDTV and Aaj Tak. While Indian Mujahideen mails would be sent to a minimum of 25 media publications.
A key salient feature missing in this mail is the signature which was a hallmark of sorts for all the Indian Mujahideen mails which invariably ended with 'Al-Arbi'.
A quick analysis of the five terror mails sent by Indian Mujahideen and the latest mail, reportedly sent by Huji suggests that perhaps the group which executed the attack outside the Delhi High court, is trying to ape the modus operandi adopted by the Indian Mujahideen. Investigators are also working on a conjecture that this is "perhaps because a number of blast cases executed by the IM have gone undetected so far," says an official from the NIA.
This also points to a possibility that the perhaps this is a separate group and will have to be investigated differently.
The NIA chief has also confirmed that investigations have revealed the Harkat-ul-Jihadi's involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks as well. "And although we cannot point out the exact module behind the blast at this moment, the involvement of HuJI in Wednesday's blast cannot be ruled out either."
Meanwhile, the NIA has also constituted a special team of 20 officials to investigate the Delhi blast headed by Inspector general of Police Mukesh Singh and chief investigating officer Nitish Kumar. The team will also comprise of one DIG, two superintendents of police, two additional superintendents of police, two deputy superintendents of police, four inspectors, assistant sub inspectors, head constable and constables.
