Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Delhi police registered an FIR on Tuesday into Monday’s blast near the Red Fort under anti-terrorism sections and conducted raids at multiple locations in the national capital as preliminary findings suggested possible links to the “white-collar terror module” busted in Faridabad on Monday, per multiple sources and news agencies.
The death toll in the blast that occurred on Monday evening rose to 12, Delhi police said on Tuesday.
Union home minister Amit Shah called a high-level security review meeting at 11am with Union home secretary Govind Mohan, Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka, Delhi police commissioner Satish Golcha and NIA director-general Sadanand Vasant Date. Jammu and Kashmir DGP Nalin Prabhat is attending the meeting virtually.
Police have registered an FIR under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosives Act under sections that deal with punishment and conspiracy of a terror attack, both PTI and ANI reported.
As the sun rose in a smog-filled Delhi, police and investigators rummaged through mangled car remains, shattered glass, dried-up blood near the Red Fort. A white i20 bearing the registration number HR 26 CE 7674, exploded outside Lal Quila Metro Station Gate 1, killing at least nine people and injuring several others.
The blast occurred a few hundred metres away from the Red Fort, and close to the entrance of the Chandni Chowk Market, at an hour when the area is usually brimming with people, including tourists.
CCTV footage shows the car at a Red Fort parking lot, minutes before the blast. The footage also shows the car rolling up to the toll booth, after waiting in a queue, a person extending a hand to collect what appears to be a receipt from the parking staff around 6:22pm.
Hours before the blast, eight people including three doctors were arrested and 2,900 kg of explosive material was seized with the uncovering of a “white collar” terror module in Faridabad on Monday.
Umar Mohammad (aka Umar Nabi, per sources), a Pulwama resident and a doctor, was allegedly driving the Hyundai i20 car that blew up, Delhi police sources told The Telegraph Online as well as news agencies.
Police sources also claimed that Umar and one of the arrested doctors, Muzammil Shakeel, worked in Faridabad together. It could not be immediately independently verified.
A man named Tariq from Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, who has been arrested, is said to have given the car to Umar Mohammad, per the sources.
The police sources said the first picture of the driver emerged in CCTV footage of the area. He allegedly had links to the terror module in Faridabad.
Police suspect ammonium nitrate, fuel oil and detonators may have been used in the blast, sources told both The Telegraph Online and PTI.
Investigators are awaiting the forensic results, police sources told The Telegraph Online.
The 2,900 kg of explosive material recovered in Faridabad includes ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and sulphur. Of this, 360 kg of inflammable material, suspected to be ammonium nitrate, was recovered, according to police.
There has been no official corroboration yet.
Police said CCTV footage of the car that exploded shows a "masked man" driving the car that blew up. Multiple teams have been deployed to scan CCTV from the vicinity of the Red Fort and adjoining routes.
Some police sources said they suspected that after his fellow doctors were arrested, Umar Mohammad was scared of being caught.
"We also got to know that the vehicle was parked in a nearby parking lot for three hours, before the blast. Footage of different parking lots are also being monitored," a police source told PTI.
Police are also probing whether it could be a case of a "suicide bombing" or a larger terror plot, said a source.
Police conducted an overnight search operation at hotels and guest houses in Daryaganj and Paharganj areas. The Red Fort Metro Station has been closed for commuters, while traffic restrictions have also been imposed in the area.
