India says deadly car blast was ‘terror’ attack by ‘antinational forces’

Police carry out hundreds of raids in Indian-administered Kashmir after deadly attack near the Red Fort in Delhi.

India has said a car explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort that killed several people this week was a terrorist attack, formally designating the nature of the incident for the first time.

“The country has witnessed a heinous terror incident, perpetrated by antinational forces,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet on Wednesday, adding that an investigation had been launched so “perpetrators, their collaborators, and their sponsors are identified and brought to justice without delay”.

The cabinet did not release any new evidence, but authorities had previously said that police were investigating under a stringent “anti-terrorism” law, giving them broader powers to arrest people in connection with Monday’s blast, which killed at least 13 people.

If the attack on 17th-century Red Fort, a Mughal-era monument that stands as a symbol of political power across the country, is confirmed as deliberate, it would be the deadliest such blast in India’s populous capital since 2011.

Kashmir police carried out raids at hundreds of locations in the Himalayan region, detaining about 500 people, a Kashmir police source told the news agency Reuters. Most were released after questioning, the source said.

Those raids came hours after police in the Jammu and Indian-administered Kashmir federal territory said they had arrested seven men, including two doctors, in connection with a separate “anti-terror” probe.

Police are now investigating a possible connection between the seven men arrested and the driver of the car that exploded, according to the Reuters news agencies, citing three sources.

A Kashmir police statement alleged that the men, part of “a white-collar terror ecosystem”, were linked to Pakistan-based groups Jaish-e-Muhammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.

Pakistan’s foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting armed groups in Kashmir, the Himalayan region, which both nations claim, but Islamabad denies the accusation.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in an anti-Indian uprising there since 1989, although violence has tapered off in recent years.

In April, 26 men were killed in anattack on Hindu touristsin Kashmir, which New Delhi blamed on what it called “terrorists” backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad.

The crisis led to the worst military conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades before theyagreed to a ceasefireafter four days.