Entry at 3.19 pm, exit at 6.28 pm, and then a blast. Umar Muhammad, the doctor believed to have triggered the deadly car explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort, was at a parking lot nearby for over three hours. Investigation has revealed that during this time, he did not step out of his car at all and did not leave the vehicle unattended. Was he waiting for a go-ahead? Or having second thoughts?
Fresh revelations in the probe have added an entirely new angle. Sources among the investigators say that Umar’s original plan was to detonate the bomb, kept in the car’s back seat, near the Red Fort parking, which has a significant crowd on winter days.
But in his desperation after the arrest of his associates and the massive explosives recovery, Umar missed an important detail: Red Fort is closed on Mondays. He reached the parking lot, but there was no crowd. This must have frustrated Umar, who wondered what to do next.
After a three-hour wait, he drove out onto Netaji Subhash Marg, which runs along the Red Fort on one side and Chandni Chowk on the other. The car exploded at a traffic signal near the Red Fort Metro Station, damaging several other vehicles in the congested area and setting off alarm bells across the nation. Nine people were killed and over 20 were injured in the car blast.
Faridabad To Red Fort: Chasing Terror Car
About 600 cops have tracked footage from over 1,000 CCTVs to trace the movement of the white Hyundai i20 car since it left the Al Falah University in Faridabad on Monday morning. The car is seen crossing the toll plaza on the Haryana-Delhi border at Badarpur at 8.13 am. It then drives through Mayur Vihar and Connaught Place before reaching the parking near the Red Fort. During this drive, he stopped on the Asaf Ali Road near Old Delhi for about half an hour. CCTV footage showed him seated in the car alone. After a short break, he resumed the drive and went to the parking lot.
Was Connaught Place A Target
There are multiple questions about the route Umar took since entering Delhi. From the Badarpur toll booth, he first turns to Mayur Vihar, where the Akshardham Temple, a key landmark of Delhi, is located. From there, instead of going directly to Old Delhi, he takes a detour and drives to Connaught Place, the heart of Delhi.
The detour has prompted another big question: was Connaught Place a target? Investigators are scanning CCTV footage from Connaught Place to find more about the terror car’s movements.
While Umar entered Delhi just after 8 am, the blast took place nearly 11 hours later. During this drive, he took a detour and spent three hours at a parking lot. Agencies are investigating what could be behind this. Was he waiting for a go-ahead? Or was he struggling to decide on a target?
The Big Phone Question
Cops have found that Umar’s phone was switched off on October 31 — 10 days before the blast — and its last location was Al Falah University. As cops scan CCTV footage of the route he took, Umar was not seen using a phone even once. The question then is: was not using or carrying a phone part of the plan? The other question is how he was keeping in touch with handlers without a phone. It is possible that he was told to stick to a plan and not carry a phone to rule out any chance of detection. It is also possible that he was carrying a phone with a different number — probably a burner phone — and it was destroyed in the blast. Investigators are probing all angles to get to the bottom of this.
The 3-Hour Mystery
Umar’s three-hour wait at the parking lot raises many questions. Some reports have claimed that during this time, he was reading news about the massive explosives bust in Faridabad and his associates’ arrest. What impact this had on him is a matter of speculation.
Investigators say the original plan was to detonate the car bomb in the parking, but the Red Fort was closed on Monday. Frustrated by this big miss, Umar drove out, hit the road, and blew up the car.
While some reports claimed the car blast could have been a suicide attack, intelligence sources stress that it was triggered by panic, and not intention. They have argued that the explosive device was not properly assembled, limiting the impact. This panic could be a result of security agencies busting 2,900 kg of explosives in Faridabad and arresting some of Umar’s associates.
At this point, however, these are theories and only the investigation would reveal the chain of events.