The National Investigation Agency has arrested Jasir Bilal Wani in Srinagar, who was an “active co-conspirator” of suicide bomber Umar un Nabi, in connection with the car blast near the Red Fort last week that claimed 13 lives, officials said on Monday.
A resident of Qazigund in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, Wani allegedly provided technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast, the agency said in a statement.
Wani, who also goes by the alias of Danish, was arrested in Srinagar by an NIA team, it said.
“The accused… was an active co-conspirator behind the attack and had worked closely with the terrorist, Umar un Nabi, to plan the terror carnage,” the NIA statement said.
The agency is exploring “various angles” to unravel the conspiracy behind the November 10 blast in the national capital.
“Several teams of the anti-terror agency are pursuing multiple leads, and are conducting searches across states to identify every person involved in the terror attack,” it said.
A bachelor in political sciences, Wani was intensely brainwashed by Umar for several months to become a suicide bomber. He had agreed to have met the ‘Doctor module’ in October last year at a mosque in Kulgam, from where he was taken to a rented accommodation at the Al Falah University in Haryana’s Faridabad.
Wani, who was earlier detained by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, had revealed to his interrogators that while others in the module wanted him to be an over-ground worker (OGW) for the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed, Umar brainwashed him for several months to become a suicide bomber.
The plan, however, collapsed in April this year after he backed out, citing his poor economic condition and the belief that suicide was forbidden in Islam.
The suicide bomber scouting plot adds a dangerous new dimension to the investigation into the interstate terror network linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
As reported by news agency earlier, Umar, a 28-year-old doctor from Pulwama, emerged as the most radicalised and key operative in the network spanning Kashmir, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, and officials believe he was planning a powerful vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) blast timed around the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary on December 6.
However, his plans were to place a VBIED around a crowded place, either in the national capital or at some place of religious importance, and disappear, said the officials, piecing together the evidence.
Wani’s interrogation by the Jammu and Kashmir Police had revealed that Umar’s transformation began after a trip to Turkiye in 2021 with co-accused Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, where they allegedly met JeM OGWs.
Following the trip, Umar and Ganaie, who taught at the Al Falah University, began accumulating vast quantities of chemicals from the open market, including 360 kg of ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and sulphur, much of which was stored near the university campus.
The December plot could not materialise after Srinagar Police’s meticulous investigation led to Ganaie’s arrest and the seizure of the explosives, triggering a possible panic in Umar, which finally ended with a premature blast outside the Red Fort that left 13 people dead.
The intricate interstate terror network was exposed when JeM posters appeared on the walls in Bunpora and Nowgam, on the outskirts of Srinagar, on October 19.
Srinagar police registered a case and reviewed CCTV camera footage, leading to the arrest of three locals — Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid — all having prior stone-pelting cases registered against them.
Their interrogation led to the arrest of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic-turned-Imam from Shopian, who allegedly supplied the posters and radicalised the doctors.