Who was Umar Nabi? Suspect in Red Fort blast broke from usual suicide bombing pattern

Umar Nabi was employed as a doctor at Al-Falah Medical College in Faridabad

Kashmir-based doctor Umar Nabi was reportedly driving the i20 car used in the blast near Delhi’s Red Fort metro station parking on Monday. The blast claimed 12 lives and left several others injured.

Who was Umar Nabi & what we know in Delhi blast case so far?

-Authorities are probing Dr Umar’s involvement in the Red Fort blast, as he is believed to have been behind the wheel of the car that detonated on Monday.

-Umar, a Pulwama resident, is suspected to have ties to the Faridabad terror module, from which a large quantity of explosives was recently recovered.

-According to officials cited by PTI, findings of the initial probe suggest that it may have been "accidentally triggered" while a hastily assembled explosive device was being transported, following the busting of an inter-state terror module.

-Umar Nabi was employed as a doctor at Al-Falah Medical College in Faridabad. On Tuesday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police took a DNA sample from Nabi's mother to establish the relation.

-A senior police officer told PTI that the suspect was likely spooked after the raid in Faridabad which forced him to relocate hastily, increasing the chance of a mishap. “The incident appears to have shifted from a suspected suicide attack to an unintended explosion during transport,” the officer said. However, all angles are being probed in the case, including the suicide bomber attack.

-According to the officer cited above, initial intelligence findings suggest a faulty assembly of the improvised explosive device (IED), which likely minimised the extent of the explosion. "The bomb was premature and not fully developed, thus limiting the impact. The explosion did not create a crater and no shrapnel or projectiles were found," he added.

-The blast that shook the national capital on Monday came hours after eight people, including three doctors, were arrested and 2,900 kg of explosives seized with the uncovering of a "white collar" terror module involving the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and spanning Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

-Umar was reportedly a close associate of Dr Adeel, another suspect under investigation in the ongoing terror network probe, according to a CNN-News18 report.

-The report, citing officials, said that Dr Umar was part of a group of medical professionals radicalised through encrypted Telegram channels, forming what investigators are now calling the “Faridabad module."

Suspect did not follow usual pattern of suicide car bombing

The suspect did not follow the usual pattern of a suicide car bombing -- he neither rammed the car into a target nor collided intentionally, sources told ANI. The blast near the Red Fort did not follow the typical modus operandi of suicide bombers, who aim to inflict maximum damage.

The blast happened near Gate No 1 of the Red Fort Metro station on Monday evening, just as a slow-moving car approached a traffic signal.

According to sources cited in the report, swift coordination and nationwide alertness by security forces averted a potentially large-scale attack.

The Delhi Police has been put on high alert and massive checking drives are being carried out across the national capital following the powerful explosion. Police personnel, along with paramilitary forces, are deployed in large numbers at all the entry and exit points of Delhi, officials told PTI on Wednesday.

Vehicles entering and leaving the city are being thoroughly checked as part of the intensified security measures, they said.