New Delhi: Days after GPS spoofing incidents disrupted aircraft navigation at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), a deadly explosion tore through the city near the Red Fort on November 10 evening. At least nine people were killed and over 20 others suffered injuries following the car blast, which investigators believe was a suicide attack. The short gap between the two incidents has raised suspicion of a coordinated cyber-physical terror strategy possibly directed from across the border.
According to senior security officials, investigators are not ruling out a link between the two events. The sophistication of the incidents, one targeting the airspace and the other striking on the ground, has set off alarm bells within the country’s intelligence community. Early assessments suggest a potential “hybrid playbook” involving electronic interference designed to paralyse Delhi’s critical infrastructure and deflect attention from a larger terror operation.
The GPS spoofing wave first emerged late last week when multiple airlines reported sudden disruptions in navigation systems while approaching or departing from the national capital. Pilots and air traffic controllers said aircraft within nearly a 60-nautical-mile radius of the IGIA began receiving false positional data, erratic terrain alerts and incorrect navigation readings, forcing crews to rely on manual air traffic guidance.
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Aviation authorities are treating these anomalies as a possible cross-border interference, a pattern previously observed near India’s western frontier. No military drills or official advisories were issued to justify such widespread signal manipulation. It has prompted speculation that the spoofing was deliberate.
Following the alerts, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a directive mandating pilots and airlines to report any spoofing-related incident within 10 minutes. The matter has now reached the National Security Adviser’s office, where multiple intelligence and defence agencies are examining the source of the electronic interference.
Then came the explosion. At around 6:52 p.m. on November 10, a Hyundai i20 halted briefly at a red light near Gate No. 1 of the Red Fort Metro Station on Subhash Marg, before erupting into a fireball that consumed vehicles and lives around it. Witnesses described the blast as a “thunderous roar” followed by flames leaping several feet high.
At least nine people were killed and more than 20 others injured in the explosion. The police and other security agencies immediately reached the spot and cordoned off the area. Within hours, authorities invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), India’s anti-terror law, and the probe was formally handed to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
CCTV footage showed the car entering the parking lot around 3:19 p.m., staying parked for nearly three hours before moving out. Investigators believe the explosive device, likely being transported for assembly elsewhere, detonated prematurely. Hours before the blast, security officials had seized a 2,900-kg cache of explosives in Faridabad (Haryana) in a multi-state operation, hinting at a larger, possibly city-wide plot.
The Red Fort blast site was strewn with charred bodies, twisted metal and burnt vehicles, while forensic teams scoured every inch for remnants of the triggering mechanism. Interestingly, the blast left no crater or metal shrapnel, leading experts to conclude it was an incomplete or mishandled Improvised Explosive Device (IED), with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil as the primary components, detonated by panic rather than plan.
As India reels from the twin shocks, the overlap has prompted renewed scrutiny of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Officials told The Times of India that the same electronic warfare units suspected of spoofing navigation signals could also have been used to mislead or mask communications linked to the Red Fort attackers.
Security analysts expressed concern over what they called “a pattern of technological warfare” emerging from Pakistan’s intelligence network. They warn that India may be witnessing an advanced phase of hybrid terrorism, where cyber disruption is used to create confusion before or after a physical attack.
The NIA, DGCA and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) are now working jointly to determine whether the spoofing attacks were a diversionary tactic meant to distract India’s air defence surveillance systems.
As the investigation continues, the convergence of these two crises (one airborne, the other terrestrial) marks one of the most unnerving weeks in India’s security history. New Delhi stands on high alert, its agencies racing to uncover whether this was merely coincidence or the first glimpse of a deeper and more sinister plot.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
