Terror module wanted bomber from Nuh

Identifying the Mewat region of Haryana as an “untapped pool for anti-national activities”, the “white collar” terror module aimed to radicalise the Meo Muslims and is even learnt to have unsuccessfully tried to find a suicide bomber from Nuh.

Calling them “naïve but sharp”, Red Fort suicide bomber Dr Umer un-Nabi had allegedly planned to radicalise local youth and send them abroad for training. Investigators part of a joint probe by the Haryana Police and central agencies revealed that Umer maintained a low profile at Al Falah, but remained active in Nuh and even rented a house there 10 days prior to the blast.

Umer’s suspected associates are learnt to have told security agencies that the suicide bomber would go around talking about “atrocities” against Muslims across the globe and the Palestine crisis. They said he asked people to “look beyond Mewat, travel abroad and give services to Islam”.

A senior investigator revealed that until the day of the Red Fort blast, he reportedly tried to convince his associates, including an Al Falah University electrician and a doctor from Dhauj, to “travel abroad or give the ultimate sacrifice”. “But when they refused, he called the Meos cowards,” the investigator said, adding Umer had been trying to get in touch with maximum Imams, donate to madrasas and reach out to doctors in the region. “While he would spread radical messages, nobody ever suspected him to be a terrorist,” he said.

The investigator said Umer probably took the Nuh house on rent after the Jammu and Kashmir Police busted the terror module in the last week of October. He reportedly took it on rent at Rs 1,000 per day with the help of the university electrician, informing him about a forthcoming police trouble.

The house, located at Hidayat Nagar, was meant to be the storehouse of explosives, which were to be moved from Dhauj. But before the module could act, the Haryana Police seized the explosives in Dhauj. Videos of Umer withdrawing cash from ATMs in Nuh are also doing the rounds and investigators believe the cash was probably used to arrange detonators and support staff at the last moment.