Red Fort blast: Intelligence lapse or lack of timely action?

Animesh Singh

THE bomb blast near the Red Fort on the evening of November 10, that claimed the lives of 13 persons and left several others injured, was the first such incident to take place in the national capital in the past 14 years. The blast was linked to the arrest of Muzammil Ganaie, a doctor at Al Falah Medical College in Faridabad, by the J&K Police on October 30.

Following Ganaie’s arrest and subsequent interrogation, a team of the J&K and Faridabad police raided his rented accommodation at Dhauj near Faridabad on the morning of November 10. The police found nearly 350 kg of inflammable material, an assault rifle, timers, batteries and walkie-talkie sets at the house. Just hours after this, another suspect, Umar-un-Nabi, who also worked at the same medical college, was reportedly seen driving an i20 Hyundai car, containing explosives, that caused the blast near the Lal Quila Metro Station.

The fact that there was a 10-day gap between Ganaie’s arrest and the raid at his residence, where a huge amount of explosive material was found, indicates an apparent intelligence failure.

To put things into perspective, days after Ganaie’s arrest, the J&K Police on November 6 arrested another doctor, Adeel Rather, from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, a development that led to the subsequent discovery of the huge amount of explosive material in Faridabad, reportedly stockpiled by both the arrested doctors.

Moreover, investigations also revealed that the two belonged to a ‘white-collar’ terror module, which also included several other such professionals. Members of the module had stockpiled nearly 2,900 kg of explosives and ammunition over the past few weeks.

Despite having discovered the home-grown terror cell, the investigators took a long time in conducting the raid and recovering the ammunition and explosives. Meanwhile, another member of the module, Umar-un-Nabi, reportedly left with a huge stash of explosives in a car, which was later involved in the tragic incident.

The lag of around 10 days between Ganaie’s arrest, the discovery of explosives and the subsequent blast, shows an apparent lack of intelligence inputs within the police. Both the arrested doctors managed to maintain a low profile, moved to small towns in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and piled up a huge stock of ammunition, all without being noticed or inviting any suspicion.

While Ganaie was a junior resident at Al Falah Medical College in Faridabad, Adeel served as a senior resident at Government Medical College (GMC) in Anantnag, until October 2024.

It was only on October 27 when posters of the terror outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), appeared in Srinagar that an investigation by the J&K Police led officials to Adeel, who was captured pasting the poster on a CCTV camera. This incident led to his arrest nine days later, on November 6, from a hospital on Ambala Road in Saharanpur.

Ganaie, too, was arrested on October 30 after JeM’s posters, threatening security personnel and police, were discovered at several locations in Bunpora, Nowgam, on October 19.

The arrest of both these doctors, just days before the tragic incident, led to the discovery of the huge cache of explosives and ammunition that hinted towards their apparent intentions, yet, the bomb blast could not be averted.

The government, although, claimed that a major attack was averted due to pan-India alertness and coordinated crackdown on suspect modules.

On November 12, the Centre declared the blast as a terror attack.

Interestingly, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in April this year, the government had said that any attack on Indian soil would be considered an act of war.

How the Delhi bomb blast incident is classified will depend on the course the probe takes further.