Israeli embassy car blast, an act of terror: Delhi police

Hours after the Israeli embassy car blast near Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's 7 Race Course residence, the Delhi police has declared that the incident is an act of terror.

"This is decidedly an act of terror," Rajan Bhagat, public relations officer, Delhi police told rediff.com on Monday night over the telephone.

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"We have registered a first information report at the Tuglak Road police station. Special Commissioner of Police P N Aggarwal is heading the investigations," he said. Aggarwal heads the special cell of the Delhi police, which investigates terror-related incidents.

B K Gupta, Delhi police commissioner, has directed all his senior officers and station house officers to increase vigilance. Following the incident, Delhi has been put on high alert.

According to sources, the Delhi police is on the look out

for a motorcyclist who was following the car minutes before the explosion. He is suspected to have stuck something on the car.

Israel has accused Iran for the attack in New Delhi. An attempt to bomb an embassy car in the Georgian capital Tbilisi had failed and the device was defused on Monday.

Sources say that Israel may send its top investigators to assist the National Investigating Agency in the probe.

Talking to rediff.com Girish Saxena, former Research and Analysis Wing chief and Jammu and Kashmir governor, said, "Though the blast set the car on fire and not much damage was done India will have to take up the matter seriously."

"Sunday was the fourth anniversary of Hezbollah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in Damascus. This terror group has a long reach and operates against Israel. The blast could be their handiwork as this group often targets Israel. Some local module may have helped the perpetrators of the crime. The blast is a wake up call in the sense that the world has to take note and take effective measures to deal with such groups," he said.