The probe into the Red Fort blast last year has revealed that the accused terror module, linked to an al Qaida offshoot, allegedly used artificial intelligence and digital platforms such as ChatGPT and YouTube to make IEDs, sources in the National Investigation Agency said on Sunday.
“One of the chargesheeted accused, Jasir Bilal Wani, had used YouTube and ChatGPT to research how to make rockets and IEDs. Jasir allegedly prepared rocket IEDs and tested them in the Qazigund forest along with the co-accused,” said an NIA official.
According to him, these details are part of the 7,500-page chargesheet filed earlier this month before a Delhi court against 10 accused persons, including doctors, in connection with the car bomb blast in November last year that killed 11 people and injured several others.
The high-intensity blast was allegedly carried out by a “white-collar” terror module linked to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind — an offshoot of al Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
“Jasir had stayed at the Al Falah University campus in Haryana on two to three occasions during 2024-25 to provide technical support for the conspiracy. He utilised digital platforms to research various aspects of specialised equipment and chemical compositions related to the incident,” the official said.
Al Falah University had come under the scanner during the probe into the terror module following the alleged involvement of three doctors working there, including the alleged suicide bomber.
Dr Umar un Nabi, the lone occupant of the car that blew up near the Red Fort, worked at Al Falah Hospital along with his colleagues, Dr Muzammil and Dr Shaheen Sayeed.
Apart from Nabi, Muzammil and Sayeed, the others named in the chargesheet are Aamir Rashid Mir, Jasir Bilal Wani, Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather, Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay, Soyab, Dr Bilal Naseer Malla and Yasir Ahmad Dar.
AQIS and all its manifestations were notified as terrorist organisations by the Union home ministry in 2018.
“Jasir was introduced to the Pulwama-based Dr Nabi, who drove the explosives-laden car, by Dr Rather. Rather was instrumental in supplying IED ingredients, including powdered sugar and potassium nitrate, to Jasir. Nabi is said to have conducted research on rocket IEDs and provided guidance,” the NIA official said.
Jasir, he said, had used YouTube and ChatGPT, searching for “how to make a rocket and in what proportion should the mixture be”.
The NIA’s chargesheet said Jasir allegedly prepared rocket IEDs and tested them in the Qazigund forest along with Dr Nabi, Dr Shakeel, and the other co-accused. Remnants of the devices were recovered from deep inside the forest by NIA teams based on disclosures made by Jasir.
According to the chargesheet, Nabi, seeing the potential in Jasir, also provided him with two drones with instructions to improve their flying range and payload capacity. They had allegedly planned to weaponise the drones by fitting them with explosives to attack security installations in Kashmir and other parts of the country.
The explosive used in the blast, the NIA said, was Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), which was manufactured clandestinely by procuring ingredients and conducting experiments to perfect the mixture.