New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the probe into Delhi’s Red Fort blast Monday evening, ThePrint has learnt.
The blast that occurred at the traffic signal outside the Red Fort metro station has killed 12 people so far, leaving around the same number of people injured.
The development came hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high-level security meeting with officers from the national security establishment and Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golchha at his residence in New Delhi.
At the meeting, the Delhi Police commissioner, accompanied by the Delhi Police Special Cell’s chief, briefed Shah on the various leads the investigators were working on. They discussed the overall status of the investigation, sources aware of the development told ThePrint.
Formed after the terrorist attack in Mumbai in November 2008, the NIA is India’s premier counterterrorism agency, with the mandate of investigating terrorist attack cases.
ThePrint earlier reported that the Delhi Police invoked relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which deal with acts of terrorism, in the Red Fort blast case. So, an NIA probe was imminent.
Investigators have found a direct link between the Monday Red Fort blast and a terrorist module recently busted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, with the recovery of 2,900 kilograms of materials for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Delhi blast is suspected to have been triggered by a doctor from Kashmir’s Pulwama district—Dr Umar bin Ahmed. He is alleged to be a member of the same module that the J&K Police has busted. So far, eight terror suspects, including three doctors, two from Kashmir, and another belonging to Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, have been arrested in the case.
Red Fort blast: Background
The entire module first came into the police’s crosshairs last month when J&K Police spotted multiple posters in solidarity with terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad. The posters carried threats against police and security officials. Following an investigation, the J&K Police arrested three of the terror module’s overground workers, who first spilled the beans on the larger plot, involving the doctors.
Following leads, the J&K Police then arrested Dr Adeel Ahmad Rather, a resident of Anantnag, from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, where he was working as a doctor. The police also arrested Dr Muzammil Shakil, a professor at the Faridabad-based Al-Falah University & Hospital.
A week later, the J&K Police and the Haryana Police recovered 2,900 kilograms of explosives and related materials from the rented premises of Muzammil. They also arrested one Dr Shaheen Shahid, a resident of Lucknow, in the same case.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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