Counterterrorism Blog

UPDATED October 30 at 11:52 am ET. AP story: Near-simultaneous explosions in three locations in New Delhi Saturday night, killing at least 61 people, hours after India and Pakistan began talks on opening border in disputed Kashmir to aid earthquake victims - Time Magazine has eyewitness account - Walid Phares reports: "My monitoring of the chat rooms over the past few hours indicate that the Jihadists-Salafists are celebrating. High possibility that a Jihadi (either local Cashemire or al Qaida like) group will take responsibility in 24-48 hours...This note is sent with caution, as other leads are also followed. The Jihadi theory is the highest, but we do not rule out mafia related causes." Obscure Kashmir group claims responsibility, but "security experts see the hand of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Force of the Pure) behind the attacks..." See this post about LeT in the Maryland-Virginia region, with links to al profile and other CTB posts. Indian police started making arrests in New Delhi Sunday - at least 22 detained. Indian troops killed militants in Kashmir recently, including "battalion commander of the hardline group Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami," according to police. Abdul Hamid, a commander of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen group, was also killed in a separate incident recently. On October 11, the US embassy in New Delhi warned American citizens of a "possible threat" of terrorist attacks, including suicide car bombings, against US interests in India, particularly "Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata." You can see extensive list of stories with links here through Google News.