Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Three days before the car blast near Red Fort in Delhi on Monday evening, the prime suspect in the believed to be suicide bombing attack Dr Umar Un Nabi had switched off his phone and his family had been unable to reach him.
The suspected suicide bomber had gone underground after he came to know that the police were looking for him following the arrest of Dr Adeel and Dr Muzamil – the doctor duo whose questioning led the police to recover 2,900 kg of explosive material including ammonium nitrate from two rented rooms in Faridabad in Haryana.
There is a sense of disbelief and shock in Koyal village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama as people came to know about the 33-year-old doctor turning out to be suspected suicide bomber. Following the bomb attack in Delhi that killed 13, the police in Jammu and Kashmir launched a major crackdown on suspects.
At Koyal village, the police searched the house of Dr Umar and arrested his mother and two brothers and later also his father. Sources said DNA samples of the mother have been taken to check with the samples of the suicide attacker. His father was detained on Tuesday to take his DNA samples as he could not be held on Monday due to his mental condition.
Dr Sajad, a friend and colleague of the suspected bomber at Al-Falah University, is in police custody. It’s unclear if Dr Sajad is being questioned only to gather more information about Dr Umar and other terror suspects or he too was being detained as an accused in the larger conspiracy.
As investigators trace the journey of the Hyundai i20 used in the Delhi bombing from Faridabad to the Red Fort area, new CCTV footage has emerged showing the car at the Badarpur toll plaza. The car was being driven by the alleged suicide bomber, Dr Umar Mohammad. In the CCTV footage from 8.13 am on Monday, Mohammad can be seen wearing a mask and getting a receipt at the toll plaza, which is on the border between Haryana and Delhi.
Sources said the car was seen near the Asian Hospital in Faridabad around 7.30 am, crossed the Badarpur toll plaza around 8.13 am and was in Okhla around 8.20 am. Earlier, a video showed the car entering the parking lot near the Red Fort on Monday at 3:19 pm, with the suspected suicide bomber’s hand on the window. He can be seen in another picture in which he appears to be wearing a blue and black t-shirt. The car then left around 6:30 pm.
According to sources, the suspected suicide bomber did not get out of the car even for a second when the car was parked. He was either waiting for someone or awaiting instructions in the parking lot, they said. Investigators said Mohammad did not leave the car for even a minute this entire time, probably because he was scared of the explosives inside being discovered.
Just 22 minutes later, the i20 was moving slowly on the Netaji Subhash Marg, near the Red Fort Metro station, with the Red Fort on one side and the bustling Chandni Chowk market on the other, when it exploded. The force of the explosion was such that it ripped the vehicle apart and scattered body parts across the road. Nine vehicles, including six cars and two e-rickshaws, near the i20 either caught fire or were severely damaged.
CCTV footage and photos of Mohammad and the car on the journey from Faridabad to Delhi emerged on Tuesday morning. New CCTV video has also emerged showing three men getting a pollution check of the white Hyundai i20 car involved in the Delhi explosion.
The clip dates back to October 29 at 4:20 pm – this was the same day the vehicle was sold to Dr Umar Mohammad, the suspected suicide bomber. The car, with the number plate HR 26CE7674, can be seen parked next to the Pollution Under Control (PUC) booth. A man wearing a shirt is seen speaking to the officials. Minutes later, two other men – one wearing a grey t-shirt and another a white t-shirt and a backpack – appear. One of the two bearded men is suspected to be Tariq Malik – who was privy to the exchange of the car. The three men then sat in the vehicle and left.
Sources said the original owner of the i20, Mohd Salman – who was arrested – sold the car to a man named Devender in March. Devender then sold it to a man called Aamir Rashid, who handed the vehicle over to Umar Mohammad. Tariq was involved in this, they said. The car was bought and sold seven times, sources added.
Around 20 km from Koyal, at Samboora village, police arrested two brothers, Amir and Umar Rashid. Amir, a plumber, is considered a key accused since his photo standing in front of a car suspected to be used in the terror plot surfaced.
Amir’s family said he had never visited any place outside Jammu and Kashmir, and there is no question of him standing in front of a car in Faridabad in Haryana.
The family said the police raided their home at 10.30 pm on Monday and immediately detained Amir and Umar. So far, there has been no statement from the police on whether the two siblings were part of a terror plot. All these developments came after the massive police operation on Monday that led to the seizure of explosive material.
The police had been working on the case since October 19 after posters of terrorist group Jaish-e -Mohammed appeared in Nowgam Srinagar. A meticulously executed investigation by the local police station led to the unravelling of a larger conspiracy and involvement of Dr Adeel.
He was arrested last week and eventually he led the police to recover an assault rifle from a hospital wardrobe in Anantnag. Further questioning of the doctor led to the arrest of another doctor Muzamil Ahmad, who taught in Al-Falah Medical College. It was after the interrogation of Muzamil that police zeroed in on the large amount of explosives.
Over the last few days, the police and intelligence agencies have raided multiple places to uncover a worrying white-collar, terrorist ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals.
Shaheen Shahid, the lady doctor arrested from Lucknow, till recently would have passed as just another professional, going about doing her work and no one who worked with her had the faintest idea who she really was. A professor at Haryana’s Al-Falah University, 45 km from Delhi, said the recent events have now brought clarity about what Shahid had been up to. “Shahid did not adhere to discipline. She would leave without informing anyone,” the professor said.
“Many people used to come to meet her at the college. Her behaviour was often strange. Complaints against her too had been made to the management,” the professor alleged. The professor said they would fully cooperate with the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has taken over the case. Demands to look into Shahid’s personal records and where all she had worked before have been raised by many people in the college. “We never suspected her in this manner,” the professor added.
Shaheen was handed charge of the India branch of the JeM’s women’s wing, Jamaat ul-Mominaat, headed by JeM founder Masood Azhar’s sister Sadia Azhar in Pakistan, Delhi Police sources said. She was arrested in connection with the massive explosives haul in Faridabad near Delhi.
Shaheen had been in touch with Kashmiri doctor Muzammil Ganaie alias Musaib, who worked at the same university. Ganale was arrested after 2,900 kg of explosives and inflammable material were recovered from his two rented rooms in Faridabad. Investigators have found that a car that was used to store an assault rifle, a pistol, and ammunition belonged to Shahid. The Maruti Suzuki Swift, which has a licence plate with Faridabad’s code HR 51, was searched after the police questioned Ganale.