Investigators probing the rush-hour car blast outside the Red Fort in Delhi on Tuesday turned their attention to an extremist module busted in Faridabad with links to terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and a doctor hailing from Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, as authorities attempted to crack down on a clutch of suspects and several people were detained across four states.
The death toll from an explosion in a white Hyundai i20 car in the heart of Old Delhi on Monday evening rose to 10 as the government vowed to find those responsible for the blast, which tore apart a group of vehicles and was heard up to 2 km away.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the investigation of the case on Tuesday after the police filed a First Information Report (FIR). Police registered a case against unidentified persons under strict anti-terrorism laws but no organization or individual was officially named as a suspect.
Investigators said they have successfully linked the Jaish posters seen in Kashmir’s Naugam on October 18, the arrest of three doctors – Adeel Rather from Saharanpur, Muzammil Shakeel Ganai from Faridabad and Shaheen Shahid from Lucknow – with the recovery of about 2,900 kg of ammonium nitrate and other explosive material and firearms in Faridabad this week and the evening blast in Delhi.
On Tuesday, police detained another doctor, Shaheen Shahid’s brother, Parvez Saeed Ansari, from Lucknow on suspicion of being part of the same network. Others on the agency’s radar include Irfan Ahmed Waghe, a cleric from Shopian, and Mewat resident Hafiz Mohammad Ishtiaq, an imam of Al-Falah mosque, from whose house explosives were recovered.
The agencies also investigated the life of Omar Un Nabi, who had studied and worked in Kashmir before joining Faridabad’s Al Falah Hospital and who was suspected of running the I20, raising the possibility of a large coordinated network of terrorists receiving cross-border instructions.
A Delhi Police Special Cell officer said, “Umar and his associates were part of a terror module of doctors comprising 10-12 members. They have at least five doctors who are working closely with organizations from other countries.”
Investigators said the suspect was probably nervous after raids in Faridabad, National Capital Region and Jammu and Kashmir this week led to the arrest of others in the alleged module.
An official aware of the developments said, “The blast was caused by panic and frustration over the raids conducted by security agencies to nab them. The bomb was premature and not fully developed, thus the impact was limited.” “The explosion did not leave any crater and no shrapnel or projectile material was found,” the official said.
However, the investigation did not officially rule out the possibility that it was a deliberate attack.
The official also underlined the prompt response of the government and agencies. “In response to neutralizing the Jaish-e-Mohammed module linked to the blast near the Red Fort, India has taken swift and decisive action against terrorism,” the official said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Police had registered an FIR invoking sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, including Section 16 (punishment for terrorist acts) and Section 18 (punishment for conspiracy). Additionally, charges under the Explosive Substances Act, specifically Section 3 for explosion endangering life and Section 4 for attempt to explode, were added. The Indian Code of Justice (BNS) was also invoked, including sections 103(1) for murder, 109(1) for attempt to murder and 61(2) for criminal conspiracy.
The FIR lodged at the Kotwali police station said, “There was a massive explosion. Due to the explosion, the wall of the post collapsed. Police personnel reached the spot and saw that cars were burning, while the injured were lying on the road. All the injured were taken to the hospital.”
The blast occurred at 6.52pm on Monday on Netaji Subhash Marg when the slow-moving i20 – which had been sold several times, retrofitted with a CNG tank, and had registration number HR26CE7674 – stopped at a traffic signal close to the Red Fort metro station. The fire engulfed at least six cars, two e-rickshaws, an auto and a bus.
The Center promised swift retaliation. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Chaired a review meeting on the Delhi car blast with senior officials. Instructed them to find every culprit behind this incident. Every person involved in this act will face the full wrath of our agencies.”
Officials were investigating an unverified claim received on Telegram from Lashkar-e-Taiba, which claimed responsibility for the blast.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a visit to Bhutan, said the nation stands with the victims – they include a small trader, a handcart vendor, a taxi driver, a shopkeeper and a bus conductor, many of them traveling to the capital from small towns like Deoria, Amroha and Shamli with dreams of a better life.
“I assure everyone that our investigating agencies will get to the bottom of this conspiracy. Whoever is responsible for this will not be spared at any cost,” Modi said in Thimphu.
Investigators examined hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and blast-damaged debris to trace the journey of the i20 and its occupants. Security agencies focused on what they described as a “white-collar terrorist network” spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, which may have been planning the attack for months.
Investigators also suggested that what was behind the blast was ammonium nitrate, a dual-use chemical that is widely valued as a popular fertilizer, but whose volatile nature makes it an ingredient for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Police officials in Delhi said it may have been mixed with fuel oil to make Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil Explosive (ANFO), which was used in the 2019 Pulwama attack and that is probably why the fire on Monday evening became so intense that it became difficult to identify some of the victims.
The investigators also traced the last 17 hours of the i20, which was registered to a man named Mohammed Salman in Gurugram, Haryana, who had sold the vehicle to a man named Devendra, a resident of Okhla, about one and a half years ago.
After this Devendra sold the car to a person from Ambala and finally it reached a person named Tariq, an associate of Omar.
CCTV footage and data obtained from toll plazas helped investigators piece together the car’s journey. According to the footage, the car was seen at a toll plaza in Mewat around midnight on Sunday, reaching the Red Fort parking lot around 3.19pm on Monday, from where it exited at 6.22pm.
In at least two CCTV footages – one taken at the Red Fort parking lot on Monday evening and the other taken on October 29 near the pollution control post, Sector 37, Faridabad – Omar’s partial profile can be seen.
“The trail of the car is important to establish who the suspect met before the blast. Multiple teams from different district police units are keeping an eye on CCTV cameras along the route. Depending on the clarity of the CCTV footage, it will help investigators establish if there was a second person in the vehicle during the day. It may also throw light on whether the explosives were transported from Faridabad in the morning or loaded at some location in the city during the day,” a The official said on condition of anonymity.
The families of the accused doctors have expressed surprise.
Omar’s sister-in-law Muzamila said she could not believe that her scholar brother-in-law, who was about to get married, was involved in the blast. “They asked us about Umar’s whereabouts and we said he was in Delhi. We spoke to Umar on Friday and I asked him to come home. He said he would come soon,” she said, denying having any information about Adeel Ahmed Rather, who was from her village and was arrested in the Faridabad arms seizure case.
On Monday, the first call to the Delhi Fire Department came at 6.55 pm and the fire was brought under control at 7.29 pm. The first victims were taken to Lok Nayak Hospital at 7 pm. Visuals show debris strewn on the road at an intersection, with cars, motorcycles, autos and e-rickshaws damaged and burnt, and metal scattered all around.
The victims included Dinesh Mishra, 32, of Ganeshpur village in Shravasti district, who was working at a printing press in Delhi’s Chawri Bazaar to support his wife and three children.
His father Bhure Mishra said that Dinesh celebrated Diwali at home and then returned to work.
Bhure Mishra said, “He was a hard-working person. He wanted to give good education to his children.” “We still can’t believe he’s gone.”
