Four years after Delhi High Court blast, threat of attacks still looms

NEW DELHI: The fourth anniversary of the 2011 high court bomb blast that claimed 15 lives and injured scores of people passed two weeks ago. Is Delhi any safer since? TOI tracked down the capital's security apparatus to ascertain how prepared it is to handle a strike.

It discovered that, in spite of the fact that a major chunk of responsible outfits like Indian Mujahideen and SIMI have been wiped out in intervening years, threat of a powerful terrorist strike still looms. And indeed, this threat has grown manifold with emergence of new groups like Islamic State and Ansar-ul-Tawhid Fi Bilad Al Hind which have been lately voicing plans of targeting India. Last September, AuT threatened to avenge the Batla House encounter of 2008, terming those killed martyrs on Twitter.

An offshoot of Indian Mujahideen, AuT was launched a few years ago with the coming together of jihadi elements in the Af-Pak region and the IM operatives who rebelled against the leadership of Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal in Pakistan. Unconfirmed reports even point to links between AuT and IS.

"The capital has at least four terror sub-groups waiting to strike-the Safdar Nagori faction of SIMI, Azam Cheema's LeT group, Riyaz Bhatkal's IM group and Dr Shehnawaj's faction of AuT. They are trying to target Delhi and adjoining areas. SIMI's disbanded members are a threat," said an officer.

Intelligence agencies have been warning Delhi Police of impending threats and also recruitments happening in the region. A few months ago, agencies communicated to Delhi Police chief about online recruitment drives by IS. "They have a list of youths it has contacted," the officer said.

Alarmingly, sources said Delhi Police is not quite ready to fend off threats. The special cell has been dormant since its operations last year. The local police, too, does not have anti-terror operations on their priority list. They cite scarcity of inspectors and lack of infrastructure. Each police station has an anti-terrorist officer on paper, but he is seldom seen in action. Security at railway stations and bus stands, too, is lax. The metal detectors there are either not working or unmonitored.

"We carry out mock drills but that's mostly when we get communications from the special cell. We seldom do anything specific without an input of impending threat. We also need to revisit the eyes-and-ears scheme," said an inspector.

The saving grace seems to be the special cell's counter-strike unit, special weapons and tactics (SWAT), stationed in south Delhi's Greater Kailash area. The SWAT commandos are ready for combat and inside their vehicles on two minute's notice. They can reach any scene of crisis in 20-30 minutes. The commandos are also trained in handling hostage situations.