The November 10 car bomb explosion near the Red Fort that killed 12 people was part of an operation called Heavenly Hind launched in 2022 by a group of self-radicalised medical professionals linked to the al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), the National Investigation Agency said in a charge sheet filed in a Delhi court on Thursday.
The 7,500 page charge sheet filed in a special court at Patiala House courts in Delhi names four doctors — Muzamil Shakeel, Adeel Ahmed Rather, Shaheen Saeed, and Bilal Naseer Malla. It also names other co-conspirators Jasir Bilal Wani, Aamir Rashid Mir, Yasir Ahmad Dar, Soyab (one name only) and Mufti Ahmad Wagay, who allegedly played a key role in the radicalisation of the module members. The charges against Dr Umar un-Nabi, who was driving the car, have been proposed to be abated since he died in the blast.
The charges include the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosives Act, the Arms Act, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
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“All 10 accused, including the main perpetrator, Dr Umer Un Nabi (deceased), were linked to the organisation Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) – an offshoot of the al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS),” NIA said in a statement. AQIS and all affiliated organisations were notified as terrorist organisations by the ministry of home affairs in June 2018.
{{/usCountry}}“All 10 accused, including the main perpetrator, Dr Umer Un Nabi (deceased), were linked to the organisation Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) – an offshoot of the al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS),” NIA said in a statement. AQIS and all affiliated organisations were notified as terrorist organisations by the ministry of home affairs in June 2018.
{{/usCountry}}AGuH was formed in July 2017 by Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, once a close aide of Burhan Wani, after parting ways with Hizbul Mujahideen. In the initial days, the AGuH coordinated with other outfits in Jammu and Kashmir, but a continuous crackdown by the security forces led to its activities coming to an end. Officials in the intelligence community said AGuH was not widely accepted in Kashmir. And after the killing of Musa by the security forces in May 2019, it became defunct.
NIA said on Thursday that the accused reconstituted the AGuH as ‘AGuH Interim’ after a clandestine meeting in Srinagar in 2022.
The charge sheet details how earlier that year, four doctors, including Nabi and Muzammil, travelled to Turkey and met their handler, who went by the codename Ukasha, people familiar with the matter said. But a plan to further travel to Afghanistan failed to come to fruition, an officer said.
“Under the umbrella of the newly constituted outfit, they launched ‘Operation Heavenly Hind’ aimed at overthrowing the democratically established Indian government and imposing Sharia rule. They recruited new members, actively propagated the violent Jehadi ideology, stockpiled arms and ammunition, and manufactured explosives on a large scale using commercially available chemicals. They also fabricated and tested various types of IEDs,” said the agency.
The group experimented with rocket and drone-mounted IEDs to target security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere, the NIA said in its chargesheet, adding that it procured an AK-47 and a Krinkov rifle. Forensic examination of the Delhi blast site also confirmed the use of Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), a powerful explosive substance, which members manufactured by clandestinely procuring ingredients and experimenting to perfect the mixture, the NIA said.
Following the blast, NIA’s forensic experts established the identity of the deceased bomber Umer Un Nabi through DNA fingerprinting. The agency also collected evidence from Al-Falah university in Faridabad, where he worked as an assistant professor.
Agency’s probe
So far, the agency has arrested 11 persons in the case while a probe is on to track absconders.
Prior to the blast, between November 8 and 10, raids in Faridabad by Jammu and Kashmir police, which was investigating a case of anti-national posters in Nowgam, Srinagar, had led to the recovery of nearly 3,000kg of explosives, along with detonators, timers, and other bomb-making material.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA), in a charge sheet filed in May, had said the doctors’ module engaged in a conspiracy to revive the banned terrorist outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) under the guise of the more notorious Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).