New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Monday said all those behind the 10 November blast in the national capital would be traced “even from the netherworld (pataal), brought before the country’s judicial system, and given the strictest possible punishment”.
Shah made these remarks at the 32nd meeting of the Northern Zonal Council (NZC) in Haryana’s Faridabad, which emerged as the epicentre of a Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind terror module run by MBBS-degree holders from Jammu and Kashmir.
Shah’s speech was preceded by a two-minute silence as tribute to those killed in the car blast. The terror module run by the doctors was allegedly behind the attack which left 15 dead and 32 injured.
“The Union Home Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, eliminating terrorism from its roots is our collective commitment. He said that in line with the track record of the Modi government so far, the culprits of the Delhi bomb blast will be traced even from the netherworld (pataal), brought before the country’s judicial system, and given the strictest possible punishment,” a Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson quoted Shah as saying at the opening of the meeting.
Zonal councils have been developed on the ideas of the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who had suggested in 1956 to group states into four or five zones to establish an advisory council to increase coordination and cooperation between states. There are a total of five zonal councils, including the Northern Zonal Council, which includes the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan, as well as the Union territories of Delhi, Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Monday’s meeting was attended by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma, Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah and Delhi CM Rekha Gupta.
Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, and Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta also attended the meeting alongside senior ministers from these states and union territories.
Shah’s stern remarks come on a day the National Investigation Agency took into custody two key aides of Dr. Umar Un Nabi, who was allegedly driving the i20 car that exploded outside the Red Fort around 7 pm last Monday.
The NIA first took into custody Amir Rashid Ali, the owner of the car, who came from Jammu and Kashmir to purchase the vehicle and hand it over to Umar weeks before the attack.
The counterterrorism agency, which was handed over the case a day after the blast, also arrested one Jasir Bilal Wani alias Danish, a resident of Qazigund from South Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
An agency spokesperson said Monday that Danish was arrested for his role in providing technical support in carrying out a terrorist attack by helping in the modification of drones and making rockets before the deadly car bomb blast.
The agency has obtained a transit remand to bring Danish to its headquarters to interrogate him after receiving his custody from the special court in NIA.
Earlier in the day, the agency obtained 10 days’ custody of Amir Rashid, submitting before the court that it wanted to examine the accused, including by taking him to Kashmir for a possible recreation of the sequence of events.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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