[Photo Credit: Reuters]

India’s government confirmed on Wednesday that it was treating a car blast that killed eight people and wounded at least 20 others in Delhi as a “terror incident” and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice as swiftly as possible.

Earlier, three sources familiar with the investigation said police were checking whether there was a link between the blast and the previous arrest of a group of seven men from the restive Kashmir region with arms and bomb-making material.

The blast on Monday evening outside Delhi’s historic Red Fort was the first such explosion in the heavily guarded city of more than 30 million people since 2011.

Indian authorities are investigating the blast under a stringent anti-terrorism law and have said that all angles are being probed. They have not named anyone or made any arrests in connection with the explosion.

In a resolution adopted late on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet said: “The country has witnessed a heinous terror incident, perpetrated by anti-national forces, through a car explosion.”

Hours before the blast in Delhi, police in the Jammu and Kashmir federal territory said they had arrested seven men, including two doctors, in connection with a separate anti-terror probe and searches in Kashmir, and in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that border Delhi.

Police found two pistols, two assault rifles and 2,900 kg of bomb-making material during the raids, a Kashmir police statement said.

Pakistan’s foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting Islamist militants in Kashmir, the Himalayan region which both nations claim, but Islamabad denies the accusation. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in an anti-Indian insurgency there since 1989 although violence has tapered off in recent years.

In April, 26 men were killed in an attack on Hindu tourists in Kashmir which New Delhi blamed on what it called Islamist “terrorists” backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad.

The crisis led to the worst military conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades before they agreed to a ceasefire after four days.

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