Modi vows no mercy after blast kills 12 in India’s capital: As it happened

Defense expert Major General S B Asthana (Retd), in an interview with RT, suggested that Indian investigative agencies may have prevented a major loss of lives in India as police raided various locations before a car blast rocked the capital on Monday.

Despite at least 12 people being killed and many more injured in the incident, which is being probed by country’s agencies, the scale of the tragedy could have been bigger, a military analyst suggested.

Earlier on Tuesday, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah instructed officials to “hunt down each and every culprit” behind the blast. PM Narendra Modi vowed that Indian agencies “will get to the bottom of this conspiracy” and “those responsible will not be spared.”

The car blast in India’s capital is unlikely to be a suicide attack, the news agency ANI has reported, citing sources. The explosion appears to have resulted from a suspect acting “hastily under pressure” following recent raids by Indian security agencies. The report also indicates that the bomb was not “fully developed,” which limited its impact.

Earlier reports indicated that the blast occurred in Delhi’s Red Fort area shortly after a police raid in Faridabad, Haryana, where authorities recovered over 2,900kg of suspected ammonium nitrate, an assault rifle, and a large cache of weapons. A series of arrest had been made in relation to the raids, including of several doctors who were allegedly “radicalized” to carry out terrorist activities.

Earlier on Tuesday, India's premier anti-terror agency, the National Investigation Agency, took over the probe into the blast, which killed at list 12 people and injured over 20.

Afghanistan’s foreign ministry has condemned Monday’s blasts in Delhi and expressed deep shock and sorrow over the loss of life and injuries to innocent civilians.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and ministry of foreign ministry affairs expresses its deep sorrow to the bereaved families, as well as to the government & people of India, and wishes a swift recovery to those wounded,” it said in a statement.

Security expert Rajan Kochhar has told RT that the last major bomb blast in India occurred several years ago, and that there has been a significant gap since then.

He mentioned that while attacks of such magnitude were not uncommon in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, they were relatively rare in metropolitan cities like Delhi.

Based on the arrests made so far, he added that there appeared to be a strong connection to the Pulwama district of Kashmir.

“Both the arrested suspects are from that region and so is the registration of the vehicle,” said Kochhar, who is senior adviser, defense research and studies, and member of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA).

High-level meetings are underway in response to Monday's blast in Delhi, with Indian Home Minister Amit Shah convening a session with senior security officers, official sources told RT.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken charge of the probe, while the Delhi police commissioner is also holding meetings, officials said.

At this stage, the authorities are cautious about labeling the incident, which killed 12 people, a suicide attack, but are exploring that possibility as part of their investigation, sources added.

RT correspondents Vinayak Dixit and Riddhima Kedia report from the Indian capital, where a car blast killed at least 12 people and injured over 20 on Monday.

There is a massive security deployment in New Delhi and several states across the country as investigators from central and state agencies jointly probe the blast. India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Delhi Police’s Special Cell are working at the site to collect evidence and establish the real cause of the explosion.

Meanwhile, people injured in the blast and treated at hospitals, as well as eyewitnesses RT spoke to, narrate harrowing stories of seeing nearby areas shaken, glass panes shattered, body parts scattered, and vehicles charred.

India’s Home Ministry has transferred the probe into the Delhi car blast to the National Investigation Agency.

The blast on Monday killed 12 people and injured around 24 others, according to officials. 

A car has exploded in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing at least 12 people, according to local media. Videos of the incident shared on social media show flames and plumes of smoke rising into the air from the remains of a charred vehicle.

The police suspect a gas cylinder explosion, but no official attribution or claim of responsibility has been made public so far, local news outlet Dawn reports, citing Islamabad police officials.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian has expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and wished the injured a swift recovery.

Addressing a press conference, Lin said China is shocked by the blast on Monday in Delhi. He added that there were no Chinese casualties from the incident. 

Preliminary investigations into the Delhi blast point to a ‘terror’ angle, sources have told RT India. The explosion on Monday killed 12 people and injured around 24 others, according to officials.