Terror Resurgent

The car bomb that ripped through the road near Delhi’s Red Fort Metro Station killing 13 and injuring 24 was yet another chilling reminder for us that Pakistan’s proxy terror war is alive and well. The incident was no isolated eruption but the tail-end of a grander conspiracy that India’s security agencies, to their credit, had mostly crushed. What they uncovered in Faridabad, Pulwama and beyond was a network years in the making, guided by Pakistan’s Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and aided by educated professionals who betrayed their oaths to heal.

The death toll in Delhi might have been increased a hundred-fold more had the plot not been foiled. In coordinated raids across states, the Jammu & Kashmir Police and Haryana STF seized close to 2,900 kilograms of explosive material - enough to flatten neighbourhoods - along with AK-47 rifles, detonators and bomb-making manuals. Among those arrested were doctors while another, Dr. Umar Nabi, is believed to have been the suicide bomber who perished in the blast.

Equally chilling was a parallel plan exposed in Gujarat, where a JeM affiliate was caught experimenting with ricin, one of the world’s deadliest toxins, capable of killing within hours. Had both modules succeeded, India could have faced its bloodiest night since 26/11 and the Pahalgam massacre earlier this year. That catastrophe was averted only by the quiet competence of the agencies who pieced together fragments of chatter, surveillance intercepts and suspicious money trails.

The Delhi blast served to underscore that Operation Sindoor has clearly not ended Pakistan’s proxy war. Islamabad’s intelligence-terror complex remains intact. What is chilling is the transformation of doctors who have turned jihadists. The Katra Medical College, where some of the accused reportedly studied, was founded and funded by the donations of Hindu pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi Shrine. That graduates of such an institution could repay faith with fanaticism is an obscenity that defies logical explanations.

This is not a problem of poverty or disenfranchisement. These are educated men radicalised by the steady drip of ideology from Islamic clerical mentors, encrypted channels and online echo chambers. The challenge is not simply to eliminate terrorists, but to drain the ecosystem that breeds them.

After the Pahalgam terror strike, Prime Minister Modi had warned Pakistan that every terror attack on Indian soil would be treated as an act of war. Will the Indian government again make Pakistan pay for continuing to host and fund terror as it did during Operation Sindoor?

The Delhi blast was meant to break the illusion that India’s cities were safe behind layers of intelligence and vigilance. It has succeeded in doing that. Yet the same episode also proved that India’s defences are faster in their response. The agencies have exposed what was building all along. The onus is on the government to ensure that the next explosion never needs to be remembered again.