Thirty-two cars – including a Maruti Suzuka Brezza, Maruti Swift Dzire, and a Ford EcoSport – were being prepped to carry explosive material, sources close to the Delh Red Fort blast investigation told NDTV Thursday. The cars – including the Hyundai i20 that exploded Monday evening – were supposed to be part of a coordinated serial attack targeting multiple locations in Delhi on December 6 – the day the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was torn down by a mob. Sources said the blasts were meant to be ‘revenge’.
The four cars that have been identified so far were chosen because they are old and have been re-sold multiple times, making it difficult for the cops to trace them. However, all four have now been found; the Brezza was found on the campus of the Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre in Haryana’s Faridabad, an institution that has emerged as the epicentre of the terrorists’ activities.
The EcoSport – registration number DL10 CK 0458 – was found late Wednesday, abandoned in Haryana’s Faridabad, which now seems to be this terror module’s base of operations. A young man, not yet identified, was found sleeping in the back seat, and has been taken into custody.
READ | Red EcoSport, Bought By Delhi Blast Accused, Found After Big Hunt
And the Dzire was seized Monday; an assault rifle and ammunition was found in the car.
The red Ford EcoSport was transporting the explosive material.
Thirteen people were killed in the Red Fort blast, which involved the i20, packed with a mix of high-grade explosive materials and ammonium nitrate fuel oil. Preliminary inquiries, however, suggest that blast was triggered prematurely by one of the terrorists, Umar Mohammed.
Officials part of the investigation said DNA tests have confirmed he died in the blast.
READ | DNA Test Confirms Umar Drove i20 That Exploded Near Red Fort
The i20 entered Delhi Monday morning at the Badarpur border crossing and circulated in the city for a few hours. The plan, it appears, was to detonate it inside the Red Fort’s parking lot.
However, because the fort is closed to visitors on Monday, Mohammed improvised. He set the bomb off at a busy traffic signal right outside the fort’s entrance, and near a metro station.
Mohammed, alias Umar un-Nabi, may have panicked after the arrests of his accomplices, Adil Ahmad Rather, Mujammil Shakeel, and Shahina Saeed, and the discovery of nearly 3,000 kg of explosive materials and assault rifles that had been stockpiled by the terrorists at the Al-Falah Hospital in Faridabad and the Government Medical College in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag.
The terror cell was run by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group.
NDTV Explains | Footprint In India Of Pak-Based Terror Group Linked To Delhi Blast
The investigation is being led by anti-terror agency NIA and includes a wider inquiry into what seems to be a new modus operandi for terrorists – posing as white-collar professionals, in this case as doctors, to earn trust among the local community and divert any suspicion. The cell was only exposed after CCTV footage caught Rather putting up posters praising the Jaish terror group in J&K’s Nowgam.
Rather was arrested days later in UP’s Saharanpur and the terror plot unravelled from there.
Several of the terrorists in this cell worked at, or had links to, the Al-Falah institution that has now distanced itself from their actions. “We want to make it loud and clear that as a responsible institution, we stand in solidarity with the nation and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the country.”
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