Investigating agencies are probing the motive of the suspect in the Delhi blast — whether he was in touch with someone in the old city, had plans to stock the explosives there and whether there was a plan to execute serial blasts across the country.
Delhi Police have registered a case under Sections 16 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with relevant provisions of the Explosives Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), at the Kotwali Police Station.
Intelligence sleuths ascertained that it seems blasts was orchestrated by UN-designated global terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) whose whereabouts is yet to be known after his hideouts were demolished during Operation Sindoor in May this year.
“Pakistan-based terrorist has involved a network of radicalised doctors to plan Pulwama-style suicide attacks using a vehicle-borne IED in the heart of the Capital. These radicalised doctors’ job was to make bombs and assist others in carrying out the attack,” sources said.
The blast bears the imprint of the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, where home-grown, radicalised youth were involved. 209 people had lost their lives in the Mumbai blasts.
Even as the case has been transferred to NIA, Delhi Police’s Special Cell along with intelligence agencies, unraveled the 11-hour route map of the Hyundai i20 that exploded. The vehicle entered Delhi via the Badarpur border from Faridabad. At 8:13 am, the car crossed the Badarpur toll plaza and entered Delhi; it was spotted near a petrol pump close to the Okhla Industrial Area at 8:20 am.
The car entered the parking area near the Red Fort complex at 3:19 pm, where it remained parked for around three hours. The car left the parking area at 6:22 pm and moved toward the Red Fort. Just 24 minutes after its exit, at 6:52 pm, a powerful explosion occurred inside the car. Police said the car was parked in the parking area of the Sunehri Masjid near the Red Fort for nearly three hours, and during this time, Umar did not leave the car. Apparently, he was either waiting for someone or for further instructions. However, he did not meet anyone in the parking lot. “The target could have been
“The white Hyundai i20 car-borne IED was meant for a much bigger attack. The man behind the wheel of the car is suspected to be Dr. Umar Mohammad Nabi, who was part of a radicalised group of doctors - a ‘white-collar’ terror module - and was in touch with members of JeM in Kashmir, like other members of his group, who had planned a massive strike in Delhi,” investigators said.
Security agencies said they are analysng CCTV footage collected from across Delhi and adjoining National Capital Region (NCR) areas to track the car’s every movement and identify anyone who may have been in contact with it during the day.
