Investigations by the Intelligence Bureau, triggered by a suspicious phone call from Nepal, has unearthed a major conspiracy, allegedly masterminded by the ISI, to strike in the national capital on Diwali-eve.
The move also led to the recovery of a large quantity of RDX, detonators, timers and batteries from an abandoned Indica car near Ambala Cantt Railway Station.
Intelligence officials claim had the terrorists been successful New Delhi would have witnessed “devastation on an unprecedented scale” as the militants had decided to use the car bomb in the basement parking of a multi-storey building.
“As the impact of the explosion multiplies manifold in an enclosed area you can imagine what mayhem the five kilos of RDX would have caused,” an official said.
Highly placed sources said IB intercepted a phone call between an ISI operative in Kathmandu and a LeT militant in Srinagar on October 2. Sustained technical surveillance led to the tracking of more phone calls between Kathmandu, Srinagar and Jammu.
What caught the intelligence agencies’ attention was that the ISI operative in Kathmandu was directing LeT cadres to ensure that though the 'hardware' was provided by them the actual execution should be carried out by the Punjab militant outfit Babbar Khalsa International.
Thus, it was decided that the explosives would be delivered to Babbar Khalsa International militants in Ambala.