Arrested doctor, car driver visited Red Fort in January

Security officials investigating the November 10 car explosion near the Red Fort said on Wednesday (November 12, 2025) that one of the accused in the case, a doctor, and the driver of the explosives-laden vehicle, also a doctor, had visited the monument in January this year.

Officials said they found a photo of Dr. Umar Nabi, believed to be the sole occupant of the car, and Dr. Muzamil Ahmad Ganaie, 32, visiting the Red Fort in January. Dr. Ganaie was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police on October 30. The photo was retrieved from Dr. Ganaie’s phone, they said.

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The doctors, hailing from Pulwama in south Kashmir, were working at Al Falah University in Faridabad, Haryana.

A senior government official said Dr. Ganaie and his brother’s visit to Turkiye a few years ago was also under investigation. Officials suspect that during the visit, the accused doctor met one of his handlers from the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistan-based terror outfit.

The Faridabad police on Wednesday (November 12, 2025) evening traced a red Ford EcoSport car with registration number DL 10 CK 0458, flagged by the Delhi Police and linked to the November 10 blast, to a village named Khandawali. The Delhi Police sounded an alert for the car, said to be purchased by Dr. Nabi. “The vehicle was found parked at a house in Khandawali village in Haryana,” a police spokesperson said. Forensic experts are examining the vehicle, the spokesperson said.

According to Delhi Police sources, Dr. Nabi used a fake address to purchase his second car. “He used the address of a madrasa in northeast Delhi. The police raided the spot late on Tuesday (November 12, 2025) night and interrogated the maulvi,” said a senior officer. The police learnt that Dr. Nabi had used the fake address to purchase the car and later got it registered at the Rajouri Garden RTO on November 22, 2017.

The police, after tracking several CCTV camera footage, have come to the conclusion that the prime suspect was not carrying a mobile phone. “On the CCTV footage, nowhere can we see him using a phone. His last phone’s location was traced near Al-Falah on October 31, since when it has been switched off,” an officer said.

The officer added that the police were investigating the presence of tele-selectors by going through the data of the signals around the Red Fort parking complex, where Dr. Nabi had parked his car for nearly three hours.

“He did not leave the parked vehicle for three hours and since he seems to not have a phone, it could mean that he was using a tele-selector to communicate with his handlers,” said the officer. A tele-selector is a device used for communication by terrorist organisations to evade surveillance and prevent their trails from being mapped back.

The J&K Police, while probing a poster that surfaced in Srinagar on October 17 warning local people not to assist the police and security forces, unearthed a terror module involving doctors and clerics which led to the recovery of 2,921 kg of explosives and multiple sophisticated weapons from J&K and Haryana in the past 20 days.

At least 10 people have been arrested so far. The module has been linked to the terrorist incident at the Red Fort. Dr. Nabi, a member of the module, is likely to have escaped the police raids in Faridabad on November 9 and 10 and caused the blast.

The senior government official said that on November 8, “more rifles, pistols and gunpowder were recovered from Al-Falah Medical College”. The official added that of the 2,921-kg of suspected explosive material, around 2,560 kg was recovered from the house of Hafeez Mohammad Ishtiaq, a resident of Mewat and a cleric at Al Falah mosque. Dr. Ganaie had taken the house on rent a few months ago.

The same day, Dr. Shaheen Saeed, 40, a resident of Lucknow who was working at the college, was also detained and later arrested by the J&K Police. The police have also detained her brother Parvez Saeed Ansari, also a doctor who was living at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. His Lucknow residence was searched by the police and a few basic mobile phones and knives were recovered.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Delhi Police, and the J&K Police also conducted raids at several places.

The Directorate of Communications, Turkiye, released a statement, saying that Turkiye firmly rejects all acts of terrorism, regardless of where or by whom they are committed, and stands as a leading country in the fight against terrorism through cooperation with the international community.

“The deliberate reports in certain Indian media outlets claiming that Türkiye is linked to terrorist acts in India and provides logistical, diplomatic, and financial support to terrorist groups are part of a malicious disinformation campaign aimed at damaging bilateral relations between the two countries,” it added.