A bomb blast outside of the Delhi High Court on Wednesday killed 11 people and injured 76, marking the second attack outside the court in four months and the deadliest attack in the country in more than two years.
The bomb was likely placed inside of a briefcase just outside of the court’s reception center where visitors collect their passes to go inside, the Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in a statement.
The bomb “left a crater that points to the high intensity of the blast,” said Chidambaram.
Chidambaram placed the Delhi Police “on high alert” and the office will conduct “vigorous” investigations to find the perpetrators.
As the home minister noted in his statement, Delhi is a common target for terrorists. Four months ago, another bomb was detonated at the high court but no one was injured.
“The tragic incident occurred today,” Chidambaram noted, despite Delhi’s efforts in recent months to strengthen its police force to fight terrorism.
A message sent by the Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, which has suspected ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, reported the Times of India. The group claimed the blast was a reprisal attack for the death sentence of Afzal Guru from Kashmir who was convicted of conspiracy in an attack on India’s parliament in 2001.
