September spectacle to solo attack: How a fractured module led to Red Fort blast

New Delhi: Investigations into the Delhi Red Fort blast case are taking a new turn, and the agencies are now looking at whether the explosion took place due to panic or frustration. The constant postponing of the attack and the busting of the Faridabad module may have led to Dr Umar Nabi getting frustrated and setting off the explosion on a crowded road, investigators have learnt. At first, the probe agencies said that Nabi may have set off the explosion out of fear after the module was busted and thousands of kilograms of ammonium nitrate were seized.

Many people that the agencies have spoken with said that Nabi was an aggressive person and had no patience. This led to rifts with the other module members. The chat transcripts and testimonies by various persons indicate that he was always arguing with the rest of the module members. His arguments with key accused Muzammil and Dr Shaheen indicate that he had issues with the timing of the blast. He would often argue with Shaheen about the funds that she had been handed to carry out recruitment drives.

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With Muzammil, the arguments were centred around the timing of the blast. Muzammil had advised Nabi to wait and not be impatient. However, Nabi was of the view that the blasts should be executed in September itself. Further, there were disagreements about the date of the attacks. The original plan was to carry out the attack on August 15. This got postponed to December 6.

The module then felt that there would be too much security on December 6, and hence it should be delayed to January 26. All these discussions frustrated Nabi to no end. The final straw was the busting of the Faridabad module, and hence, Nabi decided to act on his own. He set off the bomb on a crowded road near the Red Fort on November 10. Although the blast did have a major impact and lives were lost, it did not go as per the original plan.

The Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Faridabad module had intended to strike big. They not just wanted to carry out a significant attack, but had planned to kill over 100 people. It was these constant arguments that Nabi had with Shaheen and Muzammil that led to a premature operation. If one were to look at the execution, it could be said that the plan did not go as intended, an official said. This also explains the video that Nabi had put out before the explosion.

The intention was not just to send a message aimed at radicalising the youth, but was also a message to his module members about the urgency that was needed. An Intelligence Bureau official said that there are clear indications that Nabi had become mentally unstable. This is because he was radicalised and wanted a big impact attack at a very quick pace.

However, his colleagues in the Faridabad module felt that it was better to remain patient and then pick an opportune time to carry out the attack. These delays led to frustration, and Nabi decided to carry out a premature attack, the official also added. The chat exchanges between Nabi and the others indicate that he was hell bent to carry out the attack in September.

He called it the September Spectacle, but when his module members disagreed, he decided to act on his own. Between September and October, the chats indicate a lot of disagreement and also point towards the increasing frustration that Nabi had. Investigators say that these arguments and Nabi’s aggression led to the collapse of the module from within. This led them to let their guard down, which eventually led to the busting of the module. Investigations have found that it was not just the disagreements with his module members that made Nabi frustrated and unstable.

His prolonged radicalisation was also a factor in this state of mind. Colleagues and acquaintances that the police have spoken with said that Nabi would only speak about radical things. He would talk about how he sought to kill people.

His only aim was to take revenge and kill people. There are also conversations between Muzammil and Shaheen during which they would speak about the need to keep Nabi away from the planning and logistics. They felt that his volatile state of mind would lead to a complete collapse of the module, and they discussed using him only at the time when all the aspects relating to the blasts were finalised.

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