‘Bomber’ waited in car for 3 hours before Delhi blast as police trace i20’s 11-hour trail

In one of the most chilling reconstructions of a terror strike in the national capital in recent years, investigators have pieced together the 11-hour trail of the car that exploded near the Red Fort on Monday evening, revealing that the suspected bomber sat inside the parked vehicle for nearly three hours before the blast.

The car, a white Hyundai i20 believed to have been driven by Dr Umer un-Nabi, a resident of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, travelled from Faridabad in Haryana to the Red Fort area before erupting in a massive explosion. The blast, now suspected to be a suicide attack, left at least a dozen people dead and several others critically injured.

According to investigators, CCTV footage shows the car beginning its journey around 7.30 am near Asian Hospital in Faridabad. About 45 minutes later, it was captured at the Badarpur toll plaza, entering the national capital. The lone occupant, wearing a mask, could be clearly seen behind the wheel.

Minutes later, the vehicle appeared at a petrol pump in Okhla Industrial Area, where it reportedly refuelled. After that, the car remained off the grid until around 3.20 pm, when it entered a parking lot across the Red Fort complex.

“For nearly three hours, the driver stayed inside the vehicle without stepping out, not even once. He appeared to be waiting for something—or perhaps the right moment,” an investigator told The Tribune, citing surveillance footage.

At 6.22 pm, the i20 exited the parking area, took a right turn and merged onto Netaji Subhash Marg, the road that runs along the Red Fort. Twenty-four minutes later, at 6.52 pm, the car exploded in front of a traffic signal just a few metres from the fort’s main gate.

The impact was so powerful that the vehicle was blown to pieces, scattering body parts across the road. At least 15 nearby vehicles, including six cars and two e-rickshaws, either caught fire or were severely damaged.

Investigators believe the device was a high-intensity explosive, triggered from within the car. Forensic teams and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are analysing fragments of the vehicle and explosive residue recovered from the scene.

The Delhi Police are now trying to retrace Umar’s movements in the days leading up to the attack and determine how the explosive-laden car first reached Faridabad undetected. Officials are also probing possible cross-border terror links and whether the strike was part of a larger plot aimed at symbolic national targets.

In just 24 hours of investigation, the police have established a direct link between the Red Fort bombing and the massive seizure of nearly 2,900 kg of explosives, assault rifles, pistols and IED-making components recovered during raids in Faridabad a day earlier.

The joint operation, conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir and the Haryana Police between November 8 and 10, had dismantled an alleged “white-collar terror network” with the arrest of eight persons, including three doctors.

Meanwhile, intelligence sources told The Tribune that the alleged bomber—Dr Umer, said to be part of the same module—may have gone underground after learning of his associates’ arrest. Apprehensive of being caught, investigators suspect Umer may have panicked and ultimately detonated the explosives near the Red Fort.