Red Fort blast trail leads to Faridabad terror network

• Pulwama probe intensifies; bigger attack have been averted, say officials

- BASHAARAT MASOOD & VARINDER BHATIA

THE PROBE INTO the Red Fort blast so far suggests it was the handiwork of the same "transnational and interstate" terror module that was busted by the Jammu and Kashmir police days earlier, with roots in the Valley's Pulwama district, it is learnt.According to highly placed sources in the police forces of three states, the man who was driving the Hyundai i20 that exploded is suspected to be Dr Umar Nabi, a resident of Pulwama and an employee of Faridabad's Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences & Research Centre.

Investigators say two other members of this module - Dr Muza-mmil Ahmad Ganai, who hails from Pulwama and was also working at Al Falah, and Dr Adeel Majeed Rather from Qazigund, who was working at a private hospital in Saharanpur - were arrested in the last week of October. Police had at the time seized 358 kg of explosives, suspected to be ammonium nitrate, from Ganai's rented home in Farid-abad's Dhauj village.

Police sources said they believe that Dr Umar went missing around the time of these arrests. They said he is suspected to be the man caught on footage from several CCTVs driving the i20 before the blast, which killed 13 people and left many more injured.