NEW WHITE COLLAR TERROR

THE CAR BOMB ATTACK IN DELHI EXPOSES A DANGEROUS TURN, AS RADICALISED PROFESSIONALS TARGET INDIAN CITIES

- BY RAJ CHENGAPPA & PRADIP R. SAGAR

THE MESSAGE THE JAMMU & KASHMIR POLICE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITE X AT 6:10 PM ON NOVEMBER 10 WAS SHORT AND TERSE: "YOU CAN RUN BUT CAN'T HIDE!" It was directed at Umar un-Nabi, a 32-year-old doctor at Al-Falah Hospital in Faridabad. He was among the last key members of a white-collar terror module they had been cracking down on—one suspected of planning major strikes in the National Capital Region and elsewhere. In the preceding two weeks, the J&K Police had arrested key members of the module, mainly doctors like Umar, but he himself had proved elusive, and they had hoped to nab him that fateful Monday morning. Having got wind of his impending arrest, Umar fled his Faridabad house in an explosives-laden white Hyundai i20 at 7:30 am. The J&K Police had reportedly asked their Delhi counterparts to issue a BOLO (Be On Look Out) notice for him.

Public CCTV cameras would later reveal Umar entering Delhi at 8:13 am and driving around the capital, even stopping at Connaught Place for 10 minutes around 2 pm and then at the Faiz-e-Ilahi Masjid opposite Turkman Gate to offer prayers around 2:30 pm. From there, he’d drive to Sunehri Masjid, not far from the historic Red Fort, and leave his vehicle at the parking lot there at 3:19 pm. Three and a half hours later, at 6:48 pm, just 38 minutes after the J&K Police’s message on X, Umar would exit the parking area and head to the Red Fort, making a U-turn to come close to its main gate. At 6:55 pm, he seems to have detonated the explosives, which blew the car itself into smithereens, killed 12 others and injured another 20 people who were either bystanders or in vehicles nearby.