“Spread over a period, shocks after shocks with mounting crescendo shall be coming.”- Mahakaal. (Oi Mahamanaba Ashe)
The lull since operation Sindoor was finally shattered as a massive explosion in front of the Red Fort from a white i20 Hyundai car killed 13 people including the occupants of the car on the spot and injured scores of people who were on the road nearby at 18:52 hours on the 10th November, 2025, when the slow-moving vehicle stopped at a traffic light. The blast came close on the heels of the ongoing police hunt for those connected to the Faridabad terror module, the investigations for which began after threatening posters appeared in Bunpora, Nowgam in mid-October prompting the Srinagar Police to register a case and start a probe forming a dedicated team. A detailed analysis of the CCTV footage led to the arrest of the first suspects, Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid and Yasir Ul Ashraf. Their interrogation led to revelations about the role of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned Imam, who made the posters and took upon himself the mission of radicalizing doctors of his faith to the cause of Jihad. On November 5, Dr Adeel, another suspect was arrested from Saharanpur in UP. On November 8, an AK56 rifle and explosives were recovered from Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir. The probe then led the officers to the Al Falah University in Faridabad where they arrested Dr Muzammil Ahmed Ganai and Dr Shaheen Sayeed. Here the investigators came upon a huge stockpile of explosive chemicals including ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and sulphur. According to the investigators, the core module consisted of Dr Muzammil Ganai, Dr Umar Nabi who drove the car that exploded in front of the Red Fort and Dr Muzaffar Rather, who is absconding at the time of writing this article. As per emerging reports, Dr Umar Nabi escaped during the raid in which Dr Muzammil Ganai and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested whereupon a massive haul of nearly 3000 Kg of explosives, detonators and bomb making devices was impounded during the raids in Faridabad and Mewat. This included a 2563 Kg consignment seized alone from the residence of Imam Hafiz Muhammad Ishtiaq. CCTV Footage which has gone viral by now has confirmed that it was Dr Umar Nabi who was driving the car that exploded. The terror module that was busted was reportedly linked to the Pakistan backed terror outfits Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Ansar-Ghazwat-Ul-Hind (AGH). Dr Umar whose presence in the car has been confirmed by DNA testing with his mother was probably assembling a vehicle based improvised explosive device (VBIED) after having been trained on its construction, assembly and detonation circuit activation. After his escape from the Al Falah Medical College in Faridabad where he worked as an Assistant Professor during the police raid, he switched off his phone and hid in a village 15 Kms away. Apparently, it was a tweet by the police who were hot on his heels that caused Dr Umar to panic but whether the blast was accidental and induced by panic or by design is yet to be proven conclusively. Interrogations from those arrested have revealed that Red Fort was a target among their 32 targets where explosions were planned to go off on the 6th December, the scheduled date of Russian President Vladimir Putin cum the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition and the 26th of January, 2026, Republic Day. It is possible that the Red Fort car blast was very much a deliberate act as Dr Umar Nabi, the perpetrator knew that their module had been busted and his arrest was only a matter of time.
The questions that come to the mind of anyone following the chain of events mentioned above are first, how did the gang manage to amass such a massive stockpile of explosives and secondly, how was the funding of the entire terror project implemented in view of the hawk eye that the intelligence agencies were keeping in the wake of Pahalgam and Operation Sindoor?
As it transpires from open sources, links are emerging from Turkiye, Qatar and Bangladesh with the Delhi Red Fort blast. Involvement of rogue elements of the United States have also emerged. The first phase in the work up to the terror project was to establish coordination between the ISIS, ISKP and Ansar Ul Bangla. The main role of Ansar Ul Bangla in the enterprise was the supply of explosives for which the rulers of Bangladesh are likely to be in trouble later. The procurement of explosives was done in very small installments. Although ammonium nitrate is a controlled substance, once sold/purchased it is very difficult to trace its passage and ultimate destination. Thereafter detonators were coupled to the explosives, which in itself is not a very high-tech job. Such detonators are in use for mining and building construction projects. The next stage was distribution among the module members followed by execution. Their target was on the 6th of December. As mentioned earlier, it was scheduled to coincide with President Putin’s visit over which there would be heightened international focus and any explosion during his visit it would succeed in garnering global media attention, as it happened in the case of US President Donald Trump and J D Vance’s visit when the Delhi riots were orchestrated. The other objective was, of course, the Babri Masjid demolition, which took place on the 6th December 1992. Jaish-e-Muhammad has been vocal about these of late. Understandably it is in a revenge mode after Operation Sindoor in which its founder Masood Azhar’s family has almost been wiped out. There’s a Sri Lankan angle too that has emerged but Sri Lanka will be dealt with quietly. The JeM has also said that the Jaish would create a women’s suicide bomber wing in the lines of the LTTE. A woman Jaish terrorist, Afira Bibi born in 1997 from Pakistan was in constant touch with Dr Shaheen Sayeed, who is supposed to be the Chief of the Indian wing of the Jamaat Ul Mominaat. The Chief of the Pakistan chapter of Jamaat Ul Mominaat is Sayeeda Azhar, Masood Azhar’s sister. Her husband Abdul Rauf Azhar too was killed during the Operation Sindoor. He was also one of the hijackers of the IC-814 in 1999. On the 3rd November, Dr Shaheen Sayeed underwent police verification for her passport. The plan was to orchestrate a devastating and widespread terror attack and then leave the country. Ismatullah Khalozai alias Ukasa and five other aliases has 5-6 passports and runs the Islamic State of Khorasan. Incidentally, Turkiye issued a vociferous public condemnation of the Delhi blasts. Tayyib Erdogan of Turkiye had said in 2003 that “Islam is Islam and that is it, there are no modifiers. Democracy is merely a train that we ride with the ultimate objective, which is to make Islam dominant throughout the world. Mosques are our military barracks and the minarets are our spears.” Soon afterwards Erdogan was tried for sedition in Turkiye. He somehow saved his back by issuing official apologies and putting on the prodigal son act. But his subsequent activities bear testimony to the saying “once a Jihadi, always a Jihadi”. Coming back to our story, Amar Alvi alias Moinuddin Alamgir is the operational handler of the white-collar terrorists from Turkiye. Incidentally he was also the operational handler of the Pulwama blasts. The modus operandi of the Pulwama attacks also bears an uncanny similarity to that of the Red Fort car blast. He was charged in 2022 under the UAPA. There is a strong possibility that the Red Fort was indeed the target. There were supposed to be 32 cars and 32 suitcases with bombs each containing 10-15 Kgs of RDX with percussion charges having a top-down fire. Umar Un Nabi and his group were being trained to operate these explosives with each one among them having been assigned a target as in case of the Bombay blasts. Things went wrong for this group once the Faridabad module was busted. Umar came to know of it and escaped from one of the rear gates as the raid was going on. It is possible that he had contacted his handlers while he was on the run and was advised to proceed with his assigned mission. He reached the Red Fort on a Monday evening and the Red Fort is closed on Mondays. This is a possible explanation for his three-hour wait there while the crowd in the area gradually swelled. Normally such attacks are carried out at the time of Namaz to minimize the casualties among the faithful. The crowds swelled, and the blast happened. That it was a moving car does not negate the possibility of the act being deliberate. The chances of an explosive device such as the one we are discussing accidentally going off on its own are almost nil. Ammonium nitrate is a very stable substance and has to be detonated. The target was the Red Fort, the date the 6th of December but by force of circumstances he had to do it on the 10th of November. His associates have confessed to have reconnoitered the Red Fort.
Coming to the funding cycle, Ismatullah Khalozai, the arch villain who is a US designated funding facilitator of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, is sanctioned by the US Treasury and the State Department since 2021, stays in Turkiye. The platform that he uses is Binance. Binance has a chequered history of its own. It routes money across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. to Turkiye and onwards from there to intended recipients in India, Pakistan, etc. The intelligence agencies are investigating Binance accounts with Turkish VPN ids that were used between 2022 and 2023. Primary exchange clusters used for transferring funds are all Turkish. The US Treasury has notified that the financial facilitator for the Islamic State Afghanistan Branch is Ismatullah Khalozai. India had imposed sanctions on Binance in 2021 for laundering 700-800 million dollars. Since then, Binance has been on the radar screen of the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Enforcement Directorate. Unfortunately, by the time our intelligence agencies had gotten wise by 2023 and had begun their crackdown, their intended fund transfers to India had already been accomplished and the terror modules were flush with money. The funds reached the perpetrators in very small amounts through micro payments via myriad operators making the financial footprints almost impossible to track. The total fund accumulated for the operations was Rs 30 lakh, which was not very difficult for the operators to accomplish. Ismatullah Khalozai also ran a hawala network from Turkiye to ISIS-K that ran between 2021-2023. Prior to it he ran a luxury goods shop in the UAE but that was only a front for directing the profits etc. to ISIS, for which he was thrown out of the UAE. He settled down in Turkiye and was back to his former activities, this time under the benevolent protection of the Erdogan regime. He has been on an Interpol watchlist but Turkiye is very protective of him. Another country whose name has emerged is Qatar. Qatar serves as the hub where all the money comes in and gets converted into cryptocurrency before being transferred to the intended recipients. Billions of dollars get routed all over the world. through Qatar every day which is next to impossible to track.
Coming back to the Delhi Red Fort blast ISIS-K used the money trails of Ismatullah Khalozai in Turkiye and the contacts, human network and modus operandi of the JeM in Pakistan. So, this was a cross link between the JeM and the ISIS-K. European security agencies have recently observed that the ISIS-K is the most dangerous Jihadi terror group in the world. According to the Turkish newspaper Pulse “first open-source indication of ISIS-K in Turkiye appeared on November 2, 2021 when all the assets of Ismatullah Khalozai were frozen”. A viral query doing its rounds everywhere is – why were PM Modi and Russian President Putin closeted together in a car for 45 minutes? The answer may lie in the fact that both are dealing with a common enemy, the ISIS-K, which is backed by ISIS which in turn is backed by the CIA and the so-called Deep State. The agreement that was signed between the Taliban and Russia on May 2nd, 2025 clearly says that Russia vows to help the Taliban to fight the Islamic State in Afghanistan. Interestingly the recent Russian overtures towards Pakistan can be viewed through this perspective, keeping in Russia’s standard operating procedure of squeezing the hand it holds for a handshake apparently meant for friendship. So, there was a lot that could have transpired between PM Modi and President Putin over a period of 45 minutes in a car.
Funds, explosives, network apart, a lot of technical expertise and finesse goes into making effective bombs out of them. Pakistan is there to provide the technical knowhow and training. Now, Turkiye is going to be sandwiched between Russia and India. There were two terror ISIS attacks that took place in Russia. These went from Turkiye via Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia into Ingushetia in southern Russia which is a hardcore ISIS hub inside Russia even today. They took their cover from Ingushetia and carried out their attack in Moscow. So, Russia is alive to the fact that both Pakistan and turkiye are brothers in arms when it comes to waging global Jihad. A connection has been traced with Bahawalpur, Pakistan with Dr Sahina Sayeed. One of the Director Generals of the Military hospital in Bahawalpur endorses Dr Sahina Sayeed on LinkedIn. It is in the open domain. Afira Bibi has her network in Muzaffarabad, there is a handler in Karachi (yet to be identified), there’s Ismatullah Khalozai in Turkiye and Faridabad is the action zone itself. Sarah Adams of the US who keeps tweeting “Indians don’t realise that there are JeM training camps in Afghanistan, Indians should be friends with Pakistan…..” is in all likelihood doing her best to throw India off track. Prior to 2021 there were camps in Nangarhar in Afghanistan but then Pakistan had those camps removed to Turkiye when faced with inclusion in the FATF grey list. Pakistan being unable to handle the pressure asked JeM to start recruiting for the IS. Interestingly all the IS commanders are former commanders from the JeM and the Taliban. Pakistan came out of the grey list like that. All the JeM and Taliban camps in Nangarhar province have now become camps of the Islamic State which is not favourable to Taliban. This is to throw the world at large and India in particular off track. If Pakistan is pressed too hard, its connection with Turkey will come out in the open and, If Turkey is pressed hard, its connection with the US will come out in the open.
Muzaffar Ahmed Rather, who is related to Adil Ahmed Rather left for Afghanistan and is presently in Nangarhar. While the coming of Taliban to power in Afghanistan lured the Jihadis across South Asia to do Hijrat to Afghanistan, the Taliban government refused to let them in. These elements who are fanatical Jihadis are out of jobs and raring to wage Jihad, and are now in command of the Islamic State of Khorasan.
Those in the JeM are Masood Azhar, Abdul Rauf Asghar, Md Umer, Kari Zubair, Abu Talna and Abu Hamza, Haji Anwar and Maulana Wajeh.
The ISIS K network consists of Ismat Ullah Khalozai, Sanaullah Ghafari, (former bodyguard of Amrullah Saleh Afghan Taliban Vice President) now commander of the IS, and his family stays at the guest house of the Corps Commander, Peshawar Cantonment and his children study at the Army Public School in Peshawar! Aslam Farooqi is an old JeM/LeT hand, now in the IS. There are micro cells in Quetta, Chaman, Nangarhar, Balochistan, Bannu, a one-eyed Mullah near Bannu (whose identity is yet to be revealed) and there is a silent player – the United States.
Binance—it was sanctioned by both India and the US in 2023. The Biden administration jailed its owner, cases of money laundering were filed against him, and he accepted having laundered 10(ten) billion dollars and a lot of it was laundered through Ukraine. Among the first things Trump did after coming to power was to cancel his sentence. He was released, all his cases were dropped, and it is the same person who is Trump’s chief advisor to World Liberty Financial in Pakistan connected to Trump Coin (the Trump family’s Bitcoin enterprise). This came to limelight with Trump’s stunning volte face during Operation Sindoor when he suddenly began endorsing and entertaining the first losing General in the world to become Field Marshal, Pakistan’s Asim Munir. The real game is the entity that actually rules the US benefits from Binance and it can release and close the financial tap any time it likes. It releases the tap whenever it wants to pressurize India, for example, to shape outcomes and tighten the leash, when not so required. This is a containment policy aimed at India by providing oxygen to the terror network as a thorn by our side whenever we don’t go by its dictates and switching it off the moment we begin to play ball. Maybe this analysis casts some light into the activities of India’s powerful enemies and their camouflaged modus operandi of trying to contain India.
(Adapted from geopolitical analyst Adi Achint’s channel “Def Talks” and observations of Italian investigative journalist Fransesca Marino, author of “From Pulwama to Balakote payback- the inside story” and an expert on Jaish-e-Muhammad and other Pak terror groups.)
