A year after the deadly car bombing near Delhi's Red Fort, investigators believe a group of radicalised doctors planned the attack after failing to travel to Afghanistan to join pan-Islamic causes.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the conspiracy was allegedly conceived in Srinagar in 2022 under an operation codenamed 'Heavenly Hind'. The group, led by Dr Umar un Nabi, allegedly aimed to overthrow the government in New Delhi and establish Sharia law in India.
Investigators believe Nabi, an assistant professor at Haryana's Al Falah University, and fellow doctors Muzamil Shakeel and Adeel Ahmad Rather were self-radicalised and influenced by the ideology of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
The group had allegedly attempted to travel to Afghanistan through Turkey but failed. Investigators believe the members subsequently decided to pursue their objectives within India. Officials also suspect they were in contact with an individual in Afghanistan through an al-Qaeda channel, although they do not believe the group had links with Pakistan-based terror organisations.
Nabi allegedly drove an explosives-laden vehicle that exploded near the Red Fort on November 10, 2025, killing 12 people. He died in the explosion.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which filed a chargesheet on May 14 this year, named nine people as accused in the case. Investigators said the group was inspired by the ideology of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
The blast also raised concerns among security agencies over the possibility of other self-radicalised terror modules operating in different parts of the country.
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