Indian anti-terror officials are investigating a Kashmir link to Delhi’s Red Fort blast even as security forces on Friday demolished the home of a suspect in the federal Himalayan territory.
Jammu and Kashmir officials razed the house of Umar Nabi, a Kashmiri doctor who was working at the Al Falah University in Faridabad city near India’s capital, in Kashmir’s Pulwama town, according to several media reports.
Investigators suspect Nabi to be the man behind the wheels of the explosive-laden Hyundai i20 car that blew up at a traffic signal near the iconic Mughal monument last week.
At least 8 people were killed and dozens others injured after the blast threw the bodies of street vendors and passersby into the air and caused nearby vehicles to catch fire.
Nabi’s identity was reportedly confirmed by the police after DNA samples collected from the blast site were matched with his mother’s. However, authorities have not issued a formal statement about whether Nabi was driving the car and if he was killed in the explosion.
There is no provision in Indian law that permits the demolition of property of suspects as a form of punishment. However, the practice has become increasingly common in states governed by the prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Shagufta Jan, the doctor's sister-in-law in Kashmir's Pulwama district, said the family had not heard from him since last Friday, when she told him police were looking for him.
"He called us on Friday, and I told him to come home. He said he would come after three days," she said. Days after the blast, the Indian government confirmed the attack as a “terror incident”, a classification that threatens to raise tensions with Pakistan.
Home minister Amit Shah, who is in-charge of internal security, said the entire world has recognised India’s fight against terrorism over the past 11 years, adding that prime minister Modi is at the forefront of leading this fight globally.
He said he had instructed officials "to hunt down each and every culprit behind this incident".
Investigations are going on in multiple Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
The Jammu and Kashmir police said it has “intensified action against the terror networks” in north and south Kashmir.
Raids and searches have continued across Kashmir since the blast.
“Six individuals linked with subversive networks were brought to police stations and bound down under law in Baramulla. Twenty-two properties associated with terrorist associates were searched and 20 terrorist associates were bound down and 02 were sent to jail under preventive detention,” the police said.
Mr Modi's cabinet said in a resolution: "The country has witnessed a heinous terror incident, perpetrated by anti-national forces, through a car explosion.
"The cabinet directs that the investigation into the incident be pursued with the utmost urgency and professionalism so that the perpetrators, their collaborators, and their sponsors are identified and brought to justice without delay."
Nearly 26 days before the Delhi blasts, posters proclaiming affiliation with Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad were seen in Kashmir’s towns, according to reports.
“We warn the local people of strict action who do not adhere to this warning,” the poster said, warning people against sheltering Indian security forces.
At least seven people, including two doctors, were arrested, and police seized weapons and a large quantity of bomb-making material in Faridabad, a city in Haryana state near Delhi.
