India

Kashmiri Doctor’s Failed Afghanistan Plan Linked to Red Fort Suicide Bombing

By Shishir Gupta

Investigators have traced the November 10, 2023, suicide bombing near Delhi’s Red Fort to a Kashmiri doctor and his associates who had attempted to travel to Afghanistan to support pan‑Islamic causes. The prime accused, Dr. Umar un Nabi, an assistant professor at Haryana’s Al Falah University, drove an explosive‑laden vehicle that detonated at a traffic signal in the crowded Red Fort‑Chandni Chowk area, killing 12 people. Nabi, along with fellow doctors Muzamil Shakeel and Adeel Ahmad Rather, were self‑radicalised and had links to al‑Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). They reportedly felt that Islamabad was pursuing a political agenda in Jammu and Kashmir and sought to overthrow the Delhi government and impose Sharia law in India. The decision to carry out the bombing, code‑named “Heavenly Hind,” was reportedly made in Srinagar in 2022 after the group’s failed attempt to reach Afghanistan via Turkey. In a charge sheet filed on May 14, the National Investigation Agency named nine people, including Nabi, as accused. Nabi used highly unstable triacetone triperoxide (TATP) to convert his vehicle into an explosive device. The investigators could not determine whether the blast was aimed at a specific target such as a police post, Gauri Shankar Mandir or a Jain temple, as the car was destroyed and no forensic evidence of the device’s construction was recovered. The probe has raised concerns about self‑radicalised terror modules in India, noting that a small group of nine accused could aspire to overthrow the government and impose Sharia law, suggesting similar modules may exist elsewhere in the country.