Jaish posters in Kashmir led agencies to Faridabad terror module — suspected for Delhi blast

The investigation into the ‘white collar’ module connected to Delhi’s Red Fort blast began last month after the discovery of terrorists’ posters in Jammu and Kashmir.

There are indications that the person driving the car that exploded near the Red Fort Metro Station —and killed 12 and injured more than a dozen— was part of the same module whose members have been arrested in an interstate operation stretching from J&K to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

In a statement, the J&K Police said the investigation began on October 19 when multiple Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) posters were found pasted at different locations in Bunpora, Nowgam, and Srinagar in J&K, threatening and intimidating police and security forces.

More from India

Delhi Red Fort blast could be a ‘fidayeen’ suicide attack, say sources 2 terrorists killed in Kupwara’s Keran sector as 'Operation Pimple' continues, search underway

The probe into who put up those posters led the police to the ‘white collar’ module. Seven persons have been arrested in the case and two more detained. At least four acquaintances of these accused have also been picked up for questioning.

ALSO READ: Car involved in Delhi blast near Red Fort changed hands 4 times, ownership didn't

The man believed to be driving the car that blew up near the Red Fort Metro Station, Umar Un Nabi, had escaped raids that caught other members of the module and went ahead with the plan in panic, according to The Times of India.

Quick Reads

View All

Delhi's air quality reaches emergency levels for the first time this year, Grap 3 enforced

Delhi blast probe: NIA, police on Al-Falah campus; university denies link to Red Fort explosion

Umar panicked after the arrest of his associate and the main accused in the case, Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, and hit the road with the car carrying explosives to escape arrest, and he may have tried to dispose of or hide the explosives or the car, and set off the blast after failing to do so, the ToI reported investigators as saying.

From posters in J&K to crackdown in Faridabad and Lucknow

Last month, the J&K Police spotted posters that were common before the abrogation of Article 370 but have been rare since.

The appearance of such posters alarmed GV Sundeep Chakravarthy, the Senior Superintendent of Police of Srinagar, who decided to find out who had put them up, according to ToI.

CCTV footage led them to three overground workers, and that’s how the trail to the module began.

These three overground workers —with a history of stone-pelting —were arrested and their interrogation led the police to a cleric in Shopian, Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, who then led them to Faridabad in Haryana and Saharanpur and Lucknow in UP.

In Faridabad, the police arrested Muzammil Ganaie from Pulwama. In Saharanpur, they arrested Adeel Ahmad Rather from Qazigund. In Lucknow, they arrested Shaheen Sayeed, believed to be Muzammil’s girlfriend.

In the Mewat region near Faridabad, a cleric, Ishtiyaq, was also detained. He had the key to the house in which the police recovered 358 kilograms of explosives.

The investigation led them to another house where they found 2,563 kg of explosive material packed in 88 bags. They also found an AK-47 in Adeel’s locker at Government Medical College, Srinagar.

During these raids, Umar — the man believed to be driving the car that blew up near the Red Fort — is thought to have escaped.

Ishtiyaq, the cleric from Mewat, is believed to have arranged logistics in Faridabad. Irfan and his aide from Ganderbal, Zameer Ahmad Ahanger alias Mutlasha, led the J&K Police to Muzammil.

Initially, the cleric was not talking, but he began to cooperate after his phone showed a Telegram channel operated by Pakistan-based Jaish terrorist Umar bin Khattab. Mutlasha was also part of a pan-India terror chat group, Farzandan e Darul Uloom Deoband.