A man from Indian-administered Kashmir has been arrested over a deadly car bomb attack near Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, in an investigation that has expanded across northern India.
Officials from India’s top counter-terrorism body said the suspect owned the vehicle that was blown up at a traffic light last Monday near the 17th-century Mughal fortress and major tourist site.
In a statement posted on social media, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said the suspect was a resident of India-administered Kashmir, “in whose name the car involved in the attack was registered”.
Officials allege he travelled from Kashmir to the capital to help secure the car used in what the government has denounced as a “heinous terror incident” carried out by “anti-national forces”.
According to the agency, the man is accused of conspiring with the suspected suicide bomber, named as Umar Un Nabi, a Kashmiri doctor who taught at a medical college in Faridabad, part of Delhi’s wider National Capital Region.
Investigators say Nabi died in the blast when the vehicle halted at a red light at around 6.42pm local time. Authorities later destroyed his family home in Pulwama district in response to the attack.
Another vehicle linked to the alleged suicide bomber was seized from At Falah University, located in Faridabad, in Delhi’s National Capital region, investigators said, according to CNN.
The explosion – the first major bombing in the city since 2011 – tore through a busy junction near the Red Fort, killing at least eight.
Footage from the scene showed a charred white Hyundai i20, mangled rickshaws and several other burnt vehicles as flames lit up the densely packed area, known for its markets and street vendors.
Delhi’s fire service said it received an emergency call at 6.55pm and found multiple vehicles ablaze when crews arrived.
“A slow-moving vehicle came to a stop near a red light. An explosion occurred in that vehicle,” Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha said, adding that passengers and bystanders were caught in the blast.
The NIA said it has questioned more than 70 witnesses so far and seized an additional vehicle allegedly linked to Nabi for forensic examination.
Authorities are also scrutinising possible ties to recent arrests in Indian-administered Kashmir, where police said they had dismantled a suspected militant cell and detained at least seven people, including two doctors, along with a large haul of bomb-making material.
Police in Delhi said they are additionally examining any connection between the bombing and a recent seizure of 2,900kg of explosives in a suburb of the city.
The explosion prompted swift reactions from senior political figures. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi called it a “conspiracy” and vowed to bring the “perpetrators, their collaborators and their sponsors” to justice.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi described the news as “extremely heartbreaking”. Home minister Amit Shah confirmed hours after the attack that the blast involved a white Hyundai i20.
As part of the wider investigation, security forces have carried out raids across Kashmir, questioning thousands and detaining hundreds.
In a separate incident on Friday night, nine people were killed and nearly 30 injured when confiscated explosives accidentally detonated inside a police station in Srinagar, the region’s largest city. Local police said there was no militant involvement in that blast.
The Red Fort, from where Indian prime ministers deliver their annual Independence Day addresses, draws thousands of visitors daily.
The bombing has rattled the capital of more than 30 million people, where attacks of this scale are rare, and has triggered an intensifying manhunt for anyone else involved.
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