Israel sees Delhi-Bangkok network link

As India continued to claim there was no evidence yet to put blame any Iranian group for Monday’s bomb attack here, Israeli investigators are believed to have indicated that two Iranians held in connection with explosions in Bangkok and the Delhi bomber “may have trained together.”

On the other hand, Thai investigators believe they have found a link between this week's bomb blasts in Bangkok and New Delhi, a senior Thailand security official said Wednesday.

But New Delhi said it still had no evidence about any individual, entity, organisation and country involved in the attack. “As of today, we have no evidence to find any individual, entity, organisation and country being involved in this incident (car blast),” Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.

Iran on its part continued to hint at the involvement of the Israeli establishment in Monday’s magnetic bomb attach. Iranian Ambassador Seyyed Mehdi Nabizadeh appealed to the Indian government to verify all aspects while investigating the “terror attack”.

Three days after the attack, the Delhi Police beefed up security at the Israeli mission and of its employees besides initiating steps to upgrade existing safety measures. “A meeting was held to review the security of the embassy and the diplomats,” Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Dharmendra Kumar told Deccan Herald.

According to Indian intelligence sources, the Lebanese identity of the Delhi bomber is being verified by immigration authorities. “He has travelled on a legal visa,” they claimed without naming the Lebanese national.

Officials of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad interacted with top officials of the Intelligence Bureau and the Delhi Police and analysed progress of the investigation. The Israelis are understood to have furnished “significant information” on a range of Lebanese terror suspects.

Asked whether the explosives used in India and Thailand were the same, a senior Thai security official said they both had the same “magnetic sheets.” “The individual was in possession of the same magnets and we are examining the source of the magnet,” a Thai security official said.

The two Iranians are suspected to be part of a covert  “assassination team” tasked to target Israeli diplomats and “their plan was to attach bombs to diplomats' cars,” reports from Thailand said quoting Thai intelligence.

Besides India and Thailand, in Georgia too  a similar attack was prevented when a magnetic bomb was detected under an Israeli diplomat's car and defused.

A preliminary Central Forensics Science Laboratory report has found traces of potassium chlorate and nitrate on the car and the blast site.

While forensic experts are battling with the explosive material and its triggering mechanism, officials said despite the explosion, which shattered the window panes of nearby bungalows, the metal of the vehicle was not ripped off.