Shooting not by organised terror group, says Delhi Police

Press Trust of India, Sep 19, 2010, 07.45pm IST No terror angle in Jama Masjid incidents: Police

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police does not suspect the role of any organised terror group behind today's shooting incident near the historic Jama Masjid and the explosion of a pressure cooker bomb inside a car in the same area in a span of two hours. 

Investigators suspect that disgruntled youths or a gang of local criminals could be behind the incidents. The motive appears to be to scare people ahead of the Commonwealth Games, they say, adding the attacks do not show signs of the involvement of terrorist outfits like Indian Mujahideen. 

The city police is also not giving much credence to the email sent to media houses purportedly by outlawed Indian Mujahideen as "its content and timing were not matching" with the incidents. 

There were "no specific target or specific reasons" for the attacks and they do not find any reason to believe that an organised terror outfit was behind the incidents which left two Taiwanese nationals injured, Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.


Two men had opened random fire outside the Jama Masjid Gate No 3 injuring the Taiwanese nationals at around 11:10 am while two hours later a Maruti car went up in flames after a "poorly circuited and crudely assembled" pressure cooker bomb exploded. 

"The signatures of the attacks do not show that an organised terror organisation like Indian Mujahideen is involved. If you see pressure cooker which was used to explode the car, it was poorly circuited and crudely assembled," a senior police official said. 

He also said there was no reason to target Taiwanese as they were not in news for any wrong reasons. 

"If it was done by some terrorists, it would have targeted the police station or the Masjid itself. We feel that it is a handiwork of disgruntled youths of the area or local criminal gang," the official said. Police have detained some local criminals of the area and are questioning them. 

Investigators are also collecting details from Salim, a rickshaw puller, who claimed to have

witnessed the firing and gave a chase to the attackers along with Constable Pramod who is posted at Jama Masjid.