Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA), along with the Special Operations Group of the state has made a fresh arrest in the Delhi blast case which occurred near the Red Fort on 10 November.
Tufail Niyaz Bhat, the arrested individual who worked as an electrician in Pulwama, is a Srinagar native. He was nabbed from an industrial estate and taken in for questioning.
Hindustan Times spoke to a local CID officer who revealed that there is concrete evidence of Bhat’s involvement in planning the Delhi blast.
At least 14 people, along with Umar Un Nabi, the suicide bomber, died in the November 10 blast.
How the module was busted
The entire ‘white collar’ terror module was busted as a result of an investigation by the Srinagar Police into the pasting of posters threatening police and security officials in Nowgam and Bunpora in October.
The probe was led by Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) Dr G V Sundeep Chakravarthy. The first three suspects – Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid – were arrested after analysis of CCTV footage.
The person who supplied them these posters was one paramedic-turned-imam, Maulvi Irfan Ahmad. He is believed to have radicalised the doctors involved in the Delhi blast.
The investigation then led the police to the Al-Falah University in Faridabad, rom where they nabbed Dr Muzzafar Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed and also recovered 2,900 kg of explosives from them.
Dr Ganaie, Umar Nabi (the person driving the explosives-laden car) and Muzzaffar Rather, who is currently absconding, are believed to be the ones running the module.
Al-Falah university’s long-standing terror links
Investigations have also revealed that Al-Falah University has had a long-standing link with terror operatives, as per PTI.
Mirza Shadab Baig, a fugitive Indian Mujahideen bomber wanted in a 2008 serial blasts case, was a former student of this institution.
Baig, who is an accused in the 2008 serial blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Gorakhpur, completed his BTech degree in electronics and instrumentation from Al-Falah in 2007.
He has been missing since the 2008 Batla House encounter.
Baig was last traced to Afghanistan in 2019, and Indian agencies believe he is currently based out of Saudi Arabia.
A team of Punjab Police had also visited the campus to question people regarding a 45-year-old doctor arrested from Pathankot. Police believe that the doctor is still in contact with some of his student at the varsity. The police team also collected information of his connection with Nabi.