From Pulwama to F’bad: Red Fort blast probe focuses on terror web

The investigation is examining if blast was premature; driver fleeing raids may have been in state of panic

- Jignasa Sinha, Karn Pratap Singh, Leena Dhankhar and Hemani Bhandari

Investigators probing the rush-hour car explosion outside Red Fort in Delhi turned their attention on Tuesday to an extremist module busted in Faridabad who they linked to terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and a doctor hailing from Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir, as authorities attempted to tighten the dragnet around a group of suspects with several detained across four states.

The toll from the explosion in a white Hyundai i20 car in the heart of old Delhi on Monday evening climbed to 10 as the government vowed to hunt down those responsible for the blast that ripped through a clutch of vehicles and was heard even 2km away.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe in the case on Tuesday after police registered a first information report (FIR). Police filed a case against unknown persons under the stringent anti-terror law but no outfit or person was officially named as a suspect.

Adeel Rather Investigators said they have successfully linked JeM posters appearing in Nowgam in Kashmir on October 18, the arrests of three doctors from Saharanpur, Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie from Faridabad, and Shaheen Shahid from Lucknow the recovery of nearly 2,900kg of ammonium nitrate and other explosive material and firearms in Faridabad this week, and the evening blast in Delhi.

On Tuesday, police detained another doctor suspected to be part of the same network, Shaheen Shahid's brother, Parvez Saeed Ansari, from Lucknow. Others in the agency's radar include Irfan Ahmad Waghay, a maulvi from Shopian, and Mewat resident Hafeez Mohammad Ishtiyaq, an imam at the Al-Falah Mosque from whose house explosives were recovered.