When India got caught in the Israel-Iran crossfire

On a chilly February afternoon, in the heart of Delhi, the rear door of an Innova MUV used by the wife of the then Israeli defence attaché in India was blown away in a blast so intense that the splinters flew up a distance of 50 meters. The impact shattered the glasses of all nearby vehicles as well as the window panes of neighbouring houses.

The vehicle was waiting at a traffic signal near Aurangzeb Road around 3.10 pm when a motorcycle stopped next to it and the helmeted rider stuck a square-shaped object on the rear right side of the car and sped away, say witnesses.

Within a few seconds, before anyone could know what had just happened, the blast blew away the rear door, which was thrown off 50 m, injuring the wife of the Israeli diplomat and her driver.

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India caught in crossfire

As the world watches with bated breath the outcome of the conflict between Israel and Iran — with the US jumping in between — here is a story on how India, too, had once become a battleground between the two warring nations 13 years ago, on February 13, 2012.

The story has been put together based on case documents filed by investigating agencies and court orders pronounced on them and conversations with some of the people with knowledge of the matter.

What initially looked like a blind case started unravelled fast, within a few hours, with contours of a multinational conspiracy to attack Israeli diplomats coming to the fore. Two similar incidents happened in faraway shores — in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and the Thai capital of Bangkok — leading to this unravelling.

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A windfall of evidence

On the day of the Delhi attack, a similar “sticky bomb” was slapped on an Israeli embassy staffer’s car in Tbilisi, too, but was detected in the nick of time. And on the next day, two persons of Iranian origin, Moradi Saeid and Mohammed Khazaei, were picked up in Bangkok in connection with a similar blast there.

In the next 24 hours, another Iranian national, Sedaghatzadeh Masoud, was picked up in Malaysia along with an associate. What made Indian agencies sit up and take notice of Masoud and his associate, Nourouzi Shayan Ali Akbar, was the fact that both of them had applied for Indian visas at the Indian embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Investigators went deeper into their background and found that they had mentioned three Iranian phone numbers (989123944144, 989125444652 and 982144505272) on their visa forms. And one of the three numbers (989123944144) came with a windfall of evidence that connected all the dots in the case.

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A sinister pattern

Investigation revealed that this particular number had received a call from an Indian mobile number (8860484945) on April 25, 2011, the very day it got activated. Then it received calls in May 2011 and on January 29, 2012.

Suspicion about an Iranian hand in the blast got a credible boost when investigators found that the Indian number was registered in the name of an Iranian national named Houshang Afshar Irani who was staying at a hotel in Paharganj area of Delhi. Irani’s travel records were obtained and a pattern started to emerge.

Connecting dots

Investigators found that while in Delhi, the number moved around locations near the Israeli embassy and switched off at the India Gandhi International airport on May 6. And then, it was switched on May 25, not in India but in Georgia, connecting another dot.

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It remained dormant for the next seven months and became active on January 29, 2012, and this time, again, it got switched off at the IGI Airport at 9 pm on February 13, the day of the blast. Between January 29 and February 13, the phone’s location was traced back to areas near the Israeli embassy.

As the investigators traced back the activities of Irani, they found that this time, he stayed in a hotel in Karol Bagh and rented a bike too for Rs 500 per day.

Answer to Israeli campaign

The CCTV cameras installed in and around the hotel showed that on the fateful day, Houshang Irani left around 9.30 am on the rented bike, carrying a rucksack and two helmets, and returned around 4 pm but without the rucksack and helmets.

He immediately checked out and his phone’s last location was traced to IGI Airport. Investigators also found evidence of the presence of at three more Iranian agents at the time of attack.

Further investigation revealed that the multinational conspiracy to attack Israeli diplomats was hatched in response to a campaign to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists by Israel.

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Journalist in net

Investigators also found that the number used by Irani was in touch with another Indian number, which was being used by a Delhi-based journalist who had worked for Iran-based news agencies earlier.

The journalist in question, Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, was arrested in the case by Delhi Police in March 2012 and charge-sheeted, too, along with other Iranian nationals involved in the case. The case against Kazmi is still pending in court but in October 2012, the Supreme Court granted him bail. Kazmi has denied all charges against him in court proceedings.

A source told The Federal, “It was an operation of the Quds Force, which is a key part of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and specialises in unconventional warfare. The force was then headed by Qasem Soleimani who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. India had made its displeasure known to Iran about the attack through diplomatic channels.”