Delhi car blast: Car driver, associate visited Turkey in 2022, reveals initial probe

THe initial investigating into the bomb blare interior an i20 gondola on mon evening at Red Fort has revealed that the vehicle’s suspected driver, 35-year-old doctor Umar Un-Nabi, and his associate Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie, visited Turkey in 2022.The two doctors who have a long association-- they hail from the same village in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir and both worked at the same medical college in Faridabad. A police officer had told HT that the two had together visited areas around the blast near Red Fort and Chandni Chowk in January, based on their call records.Muzammil was arrested around two weeks ago in a chain of events stemming from radical posters being put up in the Kashmir Valley. His interrogation and the arrest of a doctor from Sharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, later led Jammu and Kashmir Police to an alleged Jaish e Mohammed module in Faridabad and the subsequent recovery of around 2900 kgs of ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials. Police said Umar had escaped the dragnet in Faridabad and was in the wind when the blast took place.“We accessed all records” and found that Shakeel and Umar were both at Al Falah University in Faridabad for three years, a senior police officer told HT. “In 2022 they visited Turkey together. We checked and found it was not for some medical conference but they had gone to meet Jaish e Mohammed handlers. This was confirmed after we checked Muzammil’s phone,” the officer said.Also Read: Arrested doctor Shakil’s mother, brother deny terror allegations against him: ‘We are Indians by heart’During his interrogation by multiple agencies, Muzammil allegedly told the police that he and Umar did visit Turkey after talking to one of their handlers.The blast took place around 6.50 pm in an arterial road the Red Fort after the car slowed down at a red light. At least 10 persons were killed and 21 injured. The impact of the blast was such that charred body parts were found scattered far away from the site, but it did not leave behind a crater on the road.Police officers said the doctors’ cell of the JeM module had been secretly storing explosives, arms and ammunition. “They had been planning something big for years. Though the Monday blast was not well planned, they did want to conduct blasts across North India and used their college’s resources for the same,” said a second officer.While the case has been transferred to the National Investigative Agency (NIA), police are conducting raids to look for more accused.