Red Fort blast probe: Mother’s DNA to be matched to confirm identity of lone wolf fidayeen; only arm found near car

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police are set to match the DNA of a severed arm found near the mangled i20 car that exploded close to Red Fort on Monday with that of the suspect’s mother to conclusively establish the bomber’s identity.

Investigators believe the attacker was Dr Umar Un Nabi — a Pulwama-born doctor and member of the so-called “white-collar” module — who allegedly carried out the lone-wolf fidayeen strike that killed nine people.

Though Umar is suspected to have perished in the explosion, forensic confirmation is awaited.

CCTV footage captured him alone in the car minutes before the blast, and preliminary analysis indicates he was its only occupant when the device detonated.

Confirming that Monday’s blast near Red Fort was a terror attack, Delhi Police have filed an FIR under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The initial intel assessment is that the blast was set off by a Jaish-e-Muhammed module wanting to avenge the damage inflicted on the Bahawalpur HQ of the outfit during Operation Sindoor.

As reported by TOI on Tuesday, Umar Un Nabi, a member of the “doctor module” who had escaped during raids by J&K police, has been confirmed as the man present in the car who carried out the ‘lone wolf fidayeen attack’.

Sleuths suspect that Umar panicked after the arrest of his associate and the main accused in the Faridabad module, Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, and hit the road with the car with explosives to escape arrest. He was on the move continuously suspecting that the cops were on his trail.

Some investigators believe that Umar may have tried to dispose of or hide the explosives or the car. Having failed to do so, he set off the blast.

But there is largely a consensus that the blast was carried out with proper planning and the detonation may not have been accidental.

“More corroborative evidence is needed to arrive at a conclusion. The probe is at an early stage,” said an officer.

The involvement of Jaish has also been confirmed with the arrest of a woman doctor, Shaheen Shahid, from Lucknow. The probe has revealed that she was part of the same “doctor module”, tasked with establishing the women's wing of JeM called the Jamaat-ul-Mominaat.

This wing is headed by JeM founder Masood Azhar's sister, Sadia, in Pakistan.

Raids are being conducted at multiple locations to catch the remaining members of this terror group.