RED FORT BLAST
NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Jammu and Kashmir Police have recovered a mobile phone of the Red Fort suicide bomber, Dr Umar-un-Nabi, and the extracted data has provided chilling evidence to show that he had prepared a video justifying the suicide attack as a ‘martyrdom operation’.
The critical evidence was unearthed after the detention and subsequent interrogation of Zahoor Illahi, brother of Umar who was driving the explosive-laden car that blasted outside Red Fort on November 10 killing 15 people, officials said on Tuesday.
Illahi was picked up by a special team formed by Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) G V Sundeep Chakravarthy as the entire white-collar terror module conspiracy began to unravel.
Initially feigning ignorance, Illahi eventually cracked under sustained questioning and told his interrogators that Umar, who was in the Kashmir valley between October 26 and 29, had handed him the mobile phone with explicit instructions to “dump it in water” if any news about him surfaced, the officials said.
Illahi subsequently led the police team to the dumping spot. Though the handset was damaged, forensic experts managed to extract the vital data, which strongly indicates Umar’s deep radicalisation through exposure to violent extremist content that included watching radical videos pertaining to suicide bombings by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda.
Umar had also made various videos of himself talking about the suicide attack and claimed that such acts were one of the most praised acts in the religion. The nearly two-minute-long video of Umar also made rounds on social media.
The phone was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for further analysis, officials said, adding the NIA will take custody of the brother soon.
Umar, the 28-year-old doctor from Pulwama, is believed to have been the most radicalised and key operative in the network, which spanned Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Piecing together the evidence and statements on the car blast, the officials alleged that Umar was planning a powerful Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) blast, possibly timed around the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, targeting a crowded area or a place of religious importance.
The inter-state network was busted following the appearance of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) posters in Bunpora, Srinagar, on October 19.
The meticulous investigation by Srinagar police began with reviewing CCTV footage, leading to the arrest of three locals with prior stone-pelting cases.
Their interrogation subsequently led to the arrest of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned Imam, who allegedly supplied the posters and played a role in radicalising the involved doctors.
Further investigation revealed that Umar’s radical transformation began after a 2021 trip to Turkiye with co-accused Dr. Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, where they allegedly met JeM overground workers.
The two, including Ganaie who taught at Faridabad’s Al Falah University, then began accumulating vast quantities of chemicals, including 360 kg of ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and sulphur, much of it stored near the university campus.
Umar’s larger plot for the December blast was foiled after the Srinagar police’s investigation led to Ganaie’s arrest and the seizure of the explosives. Officials believe this possibly panicked Umar, resulting in the premature blast outside Red Fort that killed 15 people.
ED RAIDS AL FALAH UNIVERSITY
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted simultaneous searches in Delhi-NCR against the trustees and promoters of Al Falah University of Faridabad, the varsity central to the Red Fort area car blast case, officials said.
Multiple teams of the federal probe agency raided at least 25 premises of the Al Falah trust and University establishment since 5:15 am, they said.
Teams of the agency raided an office location in Delhi’s Okhla area with a security cordon being provided by the police and paramilitary forces.
Fifteen persons have been killed in the blast that took place on November 10 near the iconic monument in Delhi and the role of a number of doctors linked to the University and in Kashmir is under the scanner of the anti-terror probe agencies.
“The operation forms part of an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities, use of shell companies, accommodation entities and money laundering.The role of Al-Falah Trust and related entities is under investigation,” an ED official said.
The official said “key” personnel overseeing finance and administration of the trust and the University have also been covered in the raids.
The agency has taken cognisance of the first information reports filed by the NIA and the Delhi Police in the case. Till now, the NIA has arrested two persons, stated to be the alleged close aides of “suicide bomber” Dr Umar Nabi.
At least nine shell (dummy) companies linked to the group, all registered at a single address, are under the examination of the ED, according to the officials.
Preliminary findings point to multiple “risk” indicators consistent with shell-company behaviour like no physical presence or meaningful utility consumption at declared places of business and common mobile number and email across various companies and accounts.
The ED investigators have also found absence of EPFO/ESIC filings inconsistent with reported scale of operations and overlapping of directors/signatories and weak KYC trails across entities.
Instances of minimal salary disbursal through banking channels and absence of HR (human resource) records part from synchronised incorporation patterns and common contact coordinates across firms have been detected at the varsity, the officials said.
In addition, prima facie discrepancies have been noted in claims regarding UGC and NAAC recognition which indicate alleged non-compliance to norms established for educational institutions, the officials said.
The Al Falah varsity is located in the Dhouj area of Haryana’s Faridabad district, and it is a medical college-cum-hospital.
DELHI COURTS, SCHOOLS RECEIVE BOMB THREATS
Multiple courts in Delhi – Saket, Dwarka and Patiala House – along with two CRPF-run schools, received bomb threats on Tuesday morning, prompting large-scale security checks across the national capital, officials said.Police said an email sent in the name of a terror module claimed that explosives had been planted on court premises early morning.
Several teams of bomb disposal squad, dog squad, and officers from the local police station were deployed to sweep the district court complexes.
“So far, nothing suspicious was found during the checks,” said a police source, adding that the email from which the message was received is under surveillance to determine its origin.
Around the same time, an unidentified man called the Police Control Room (PCR), claiming that bombs had been placed inside CRPF schools in Prashant Vihar and Dwarka and he needed help from police.
The threat triggered a similar response in this case, too, and teams were dispatched to the locations and schools were evacuated. ”We thoroughly inspected the schools, and nothing suspicious was found. The threat was declared a hoax,” a Delhi Fire Services official said.
There was an annual function scheduled in the evening at the Prashant Vihar school.
A police officer said the caller’s phone switched off soon after the threat call and no one was found at his address. Efforts are underway to trace him.
The hoax calls come in the wake of the Red Fort blast. (PTI)
