New Delhi: Investigators, drawing striking parallels between the 2011 Delhi High Court bombing and Monday evening’s Red Fort blast, have suggested a recurring pattern of terror cell operations rooted in Kashmir’s radicalised “white-collar” networks.
Both explosions in Delhi involved well-educated people from the medical fraternity. And, just as in 2011, the plan this time was to target high-security sites in the Capital. Though the Red Fort blast site may not have been one of those, since Monday’s incident could have happened while transporting the explosives.
In the evening of 10 November, Dr Umar un Nabi from Kashmir’s Pulwama was driving a car carrying explosives when it blew up near the Red Fort metro station, killing 13 people and injuring others. His aides in the terror cell worked as doctors or professors at the Al Falah University & Hospital in Haryana’s Faridabad, including Adeel Ahmed Rather, Shaheen Saeed, and Muzzamil Shakeel. They’re among the cell’s six to seven medical professionals.
On similar lines, Wasim Akram Malik from Kashmir’s Kishtwar—a key conspirator in the 2011 case according to the NIA—was a student of Unani medicine in Bangladesh.
There are several other similarities. Tablighi Jamaat-linked clerics in Kashmir radicalised the perpetrators in both cases, say sources in intelligence agencies. Similar explosives have been used, and both blasts have been traced back to the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Another commonality is a Pakistan link in terms of handlers and logistics and instructions given from across the border.
Six of the seven accused in the 2011 Delhi HC attack are now facing a trial, currently at the stage of prosecution evidence. The Juvenile Justice Board had separately handled the case of another accused—a juvenile—sentencing him to three years in a special home. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had filed the first charge sheet in 2012, naming a juvenile among six others, and another in 2013, naming a seventh accused.
Delhi blasts: JeM’s repeat playbook
In both incidents, separated by more than a decade, terror cells collected explosives with similar motives. While the 2011 attack was believed to be a response to anti-terror operations and the pending death sentence of Afzal Guru, the Red Fort blast has been claimed to be a fallout of a larger terror plan, in an action of revenge for Operation Sindoor. India had struck the JeM headquarters in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur during the May operation.
The Indian Mujahideen (IM) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) were initially linked to the 2011 incident, but a deeper probe then confirmed JeM’s central role.
This mirrors the investigation into the Red Fort blast, triggered by posters on the outskirts of Srinagar. Later, a deeper probe helped foil what could have been one of the biggest terror attacks in the Capital after 1993.
The 29 October posters, showing support for the JeM, led to the initial arrests of the doctors. Only a more intensive probe led to the police raids in Haryana’s Faridabad, where the doctors worked. The raids then helped recover 2,900 kg of Improvised Explosive Device (IED)-making materials. Over 2,000 kg of it was ammonium nitrate.
The terrorists allegedly behind the 2011 Delhi HC attack were linked to the JeM, which was operating through its Kashmir-based networks. The Al-Qaeda was found to have been the ideological inspiration of the attackers.
On similar lines, the Red Fort blast, as investigators have confirmed, was orchestrated by the JeM. The group used a “white-collar terror network”, using Telegram among other social media apps with allegiance to the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, the Kashmir wing of Al-Qaeda.
Moreover, Dr Umar un Nabi is said to have owed allegiance to the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, the Kashmir wing of Al-Qaeda.
Both the 2011 and 2025 incidents involve “educated professionals [doctors and medical students], providing cover, funding, and operational secrecy”, a source in the intelligence agency told ThePrint. “This is an emerging pattern, now commonly referred to as the ‘doctor module’ in the J&K terror ecosystem.”
“We are tracking a trend that recurs—medical professionals radicalised to execute high-value plots,” the source added.
In both incidents, with 14 years lying in between them, ammonium nitrate-based IEDs were stockpiled by the alleged terrorists, according to investigators. An RDX (Royal Demolition eXplosive, also known as hexogen/cyclonite) and ammonium nitrate mixture in a briefcase was allegedly used in the 2011 attack. Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil, or ANFO, in a vehicle-borne IED led to Monday’s Red Fort blast, investigators suspect.
Both incidents also involved an IED in a crowded, public access area. 2011’s briefcase was left at the Delhi HC gate during peak hours. In the Red Fort blast, the white i20 loaded with ANFO—ammonium nitrate and fuel oil—exploded near the gate no. 1 of the metro station late evening.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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