Eight Killed as Car Explodes in Delhi; Police Detain Protestors Demanding Action Against Air Pollution; Assam BJP Keeps Up Anti-Muslim Messaging; Paranoid Style in US Politics

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Snapshot of the day

November 10, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

At least eight people were killed and dozens injured when a motor car exploded near the Red Fort metro station in Delhi on Monday evening. Though the National Investigation Agency rushed to the spot to gather evidence that could pinpoint the cause and nature of the explosion, the Delhi Police has so far not characterised the incident as an act of terror. According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle – a Hyundai i20 with Haryana license plates – was in solw-moving traffic when it exploded, killing its passengers and others.

The explosion comes within 24 hours of the police seizing 2,900 kgs of ammonium nitrate from Faridabad, near Delhi, a haul the authorities have linked to a doctor from Kashmir. The chemical is a key ingredient in industrial explosives and has also been used in terrorist bombings around the world.

Hundreds of people – including children, women and elderly – turned up at India Gate yesterday evening to protest against Delhi’s toxic air as dangerous haze shrouded the city, and Delhi police detained some 80 of them, apparently because “only Jantar Mantar is designated as a protest site where permission can be sought by following the due procedure”. Several detainees were taken to the Narela and Bawana police stations on the outskirts of the city proper, Ratna Singh reports. She also cites the demonstration’s organisers as saying that police officers had repeatedly pressured them into cancelling the protest in the run-up to it. Among the detainees, Newslaundry reporter Anmol Pritam and producer Tarun Sahu were also detained by Delhi police while covering a citizens’ protest against air pollution near India Gate.

Following the detaining of scores of protestors, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused Narendra Modi’s government of treating citizens like “criminals”. “Air pollution is affecting crores of Indians, harming our children, and the future of our country. But the government which came to power through vote theft simply does not care, nor is it even attempting to solve this crisis. We need to take decisive action on air pollution right now instead of attacking citizens asking for clean air.”

Children joined their parents at the demonstration, wearing protective masks and carrying placards, including one that starkly declared: “I miss breathing.”