New Delhi, April 23: More than two months after the attack on an Israeli diplomat in the capital, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory has identified trinitrotoluene (TNT) as the explosive material used in the strike.
The 31-page forensic report was handed over to Delhi Police at a time when a team is getting ready to leave for Tehran to probe the role of three Iranians - Houshang Afshar Irani, Mohammad Reza Abolghasemi and Seyed Ali Mahdian Sadr - allegedly involved in the February 13 bombing of diplomat Tal Yehoshua Koren's car. The letters rogatory, being sent to Iran, Thailand and Malaysia, are already under process.
Sources say TNT has not been used widely by terrorists in India earlier. "It is a material which is usually used by military and armed forces. There are few blasts in India where traces of TNT have been found. Terror groups in India mostly use RDX, PETN, ammonium nitrate or potassium chlorate," said a senior officer.
CFSL deputed its senior scientists for identifying the explosive material used in the terror incident, the first time when a foreign diplomat was targeted in India. "It is established from samples picked from the scene of crime that TNT was used as the explosive material," the report said. It also talks about pieces having magnetic nature that could have been used by main bomber Irani for sticking the bomb on the car.
Yehoshua was seriously injured in the attack and was treated at a Delhi hospital for a few days before being flown back to Israel. The Indian driver of the car and two others were also injured.
The investigators, who are in touch with intelligence agencies of other countries, feel that the attack was carried out by Tevhid-Selam-Quds, an organization that is being handled out of Iran. "Its operatives are trained and equipped with weapons, ammunition and explosives, especially in handling of TNT and C4," said a source. The group has a history of carrying out terrorist attacks on Israel in other countries like those in Turkey, including the murder of Israeli security officer Ehud Sadan.
Delhi Police has already arrested Indian journalist Syed Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi, who was working part-time for an Iranian news agency and Persian newspapers, for allegedly being a part of the car blast conspiracy in Delhi. He was sent to judicial custody for 14 more days on Saturday.
The National Bomb Data Centre, which comes under the elite NSG, was kept away from collection of samples at the blast site by Delhi Police despite being the central nodal agency for monitoring, recording and analysing all bombing incidents in the country.
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