New Delhi: The bomb that left 12 dead near Red Fort is believed to have exploded accidentally while being driven around by a panicked doctor—who had escaped from Faridabad during a police raid—due to the instability of the device, ThePrint has learnt.
Sources in the security establishment said that a slip up by the terror module and a dogged probe by the Jammu and Kashmir Police team led by Srinagar SSP G.V. Sundeep Chakravarthy cut short a much more elaborate terror plan—launched post-Operation Sindoor—to strike multiple places in the national capital.
They said the ‘self-radicalised’ Dr Umar U. Nabi, who owed allegiance to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind—a Jammu and Kashmir-based specific wing of Al Qaeda—was scared of being caught by police. He had panicked following a raid in Faridabad, Haryana, by the J&K Police, and the arrest of his ‘terrorist’ friends.
He knew very well that the police would catch up to him in connection with the terror module investigation, sources said.
As the raid began, he escaped from the spot. He drove his vehicle, carrying the explosive to Delhi, the sources said, adding that it seemed he did not know what to do next.
Sources said he either wanted to dispose of the explosives or wanted further instructions.
“The investigation so far suggests that the blast at the spot was not intentional. The car was moving and had slowed down at the red light when the explosion took place. The location did not offer any significance. If he wanted to carry out a suicide bombing, he would have driven his car into something for maximum impact or chosen a strategic target.
“The fact that the bomb went off while on the move shows it exploded due to the unstable nature of the bomb. Moreover, the bomb was crude and not made to create several casualties because it was missing the metal balls and other shrapnel which are used in all IEDs to cause maximum casualties,” a source explained.
The operation has so far led to the arrests of three doctors with alleged terror links, according to sources.
The police raids in Faridabad were were carried out on the premises of a doctor arrested earlier—Pulwama’s Dr Muzammil Shakeel—a professor at Al Falah University & Hospital.
Sources said that the materials Dr Nabi used in bomb-making were procured locally—including ammonium nitrate, which is a common fertiliser that can also be used for making IEDs, fuel oil, and detonators.
However, had the original plan worked, it would have been the first time in the Narendra Modi government’s tenure that a terror attack of such a proportion would have taken place on the mainland, targeting civilians and installations.
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The case & its unravelling
Speaking to ThePrint, sources in the security establishment explained that on the morning of 19 October, the local police in the Bunpora area of Nowgam on the outskirts of Srinagar had come across posters praising the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group and threatening “revenge attacks”.
Upset that the posters had cropped up in his area—a common feature pre-abrogation of Article 370—SSP Chakravarthy ordered his officers to track down what, they initially believed, were Over Ground Workers (OGW) of JeM.
Police scanned CCTV footage from the area, after which the terror threat began to unravel. The J&K Police termed it as a “white-collar terror ecosystem involving radicalised professionals and students, in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries”.
Sources said the police tracked down those who had put up the posters and arrested three OGWs. Based on their interrogation, they also reached Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a cleric in Shopian and detained him. His interrogation led them to Dr Adil Ahmed Rather, who is from Kulgam, but has, of late, been working at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.
In a quiet operation, the J&K Police picked him up. During his questioning, he shared details of the people he kept in touch with. That is when the police realised that he was a part of a larger terror module, consisting of self-radicalised individuals, mostly doctors.
Rather gave the police the name of Dr Muzammil Shakeel, at whose premises in Faridabad, the police conducted the Monday raids, leading to the recovery of 2,900 kg of IED-making material. These included explosives, chemicals, reagents, inflammable materials, electronic circuits, batteries, wires, remote control, timers, and metal sheets, among others. Sources said that a total of 353 kg of ammonium nitrate was among the seizures made.
Dr Nabi was present at the location of the police search but escaped in the i20 car.
It is suspected that the terror module comprises nearly 12-14 individuals, including six to seven doctors and at least two ‘professors’.
According to sources, the four doctors whose names have surfaced so far are Dr Shaheen Saeed, Dr Adil Ahmed Rather, Dr Muzammil Shakeel, and deceased Dr Nabi. Nabi, Shakeel, and Saeed. They all worked at Al-Falah hospital in Haryana’s Faridabad.
Rather, on the other hand, was posted in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Rathar, hailing from Kashmir’s Kulgam, and Nabi from Kashmir’s Pulwama had served together at the Anantnag government medical college. Both also completed their MBBS from GMC Srinagar.
The Red Fort blast
The Delhi Police and the J&K Police have detained and are interrogating several people in the Red Fort blast case. These include Tariq Ahmed Malik, Aamir Rashid, and his brother Umar Rashid—all residents of Pulwama and detained in Kashmir.
“The module worked with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a J&K-based specific wing of Al Qaeda. They had got in touch with Pakistan-based handlers through social media and planned serial blasts across northern states, including Delhi,” a source said.
Sources said that while the terror module was ‘self-radicalised’ for quite some time, they were activated after Operation Sindoor by the JeM. “Over-ground workers were assisting them,” a source said, adding that the JeM had threatened to retaliate against Operation Sindoor, under which JeM founder Masood Azhar’s family members were killed.
Investigators have claimed that Dr Shaheen Saeed was associated with the ‘Jammat-ul-Mominee’, a Pakistan-based women’s terror wing. She was tasked with recruiting and expanding the module’s network, a source said, adding that Shaheen was involved in radicalising others.
She was arrested in Lucknow Monday after investigators recovered an AK-Krinkov assault rifle, three magazines, a pistol with live rounds, and two empty cartridges from a Swift car registered in her name. The car was sold to Shakeel, though the sale was never officially registered.
On Monday, Nabi managed to carry the explosives from Faridabad to Delhi. The i20 he drove changed many hands without any registration certificate updates, it was found. In March 2025, it was sold by one Salman to Devender, who then sold it to Aamir on 29 October. Aamir and Tariq, both co-accused in the Red Fort blasts case, gave Nabi the car, which played a crucial part in Monday’s terror attack.
“The leftover explosives (used in the Red Fort blast) slipped through the cracks,” a senior police officer said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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