The National Investigation Agency has chargesheeted three more people in connection with the car bomb explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort that killed eleven people last November, bringing the total number of individuals named in the case to thirteen.
The fresh chargesheet, filed as a supplementary document to the original case, names Zameer Ahmad Ahanger, Tufail Ahmad Bhat and Muzafar Ahmad, all residents of Jammu and Kashmir. Investigators describe Muzafar Ahmad, who remains absconding, as a trained pediatrician and a founding member of a terror module described as an offshoot linked to Al-Qaeda’s regional network. He is also identified as the elder brother of another accused already chargesheeted earlier in the case.
According to the NIA, Zameer Ahmad Ahanger served as an overground worker for the module, acting as a courier who moved arms, ammunition and cash between handlers and operatives. Tufail Ahmad Bhat, a former overground worker linked to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, is accused of arranging weapons for the group. The prime accused in the original case, a doctor identified as Umer Un Nabi, is deceased.
The blast, which tore through a vehicle near one of Delhi’s most heavily visited historic sites, prompted a nationwide investigation that has stretched across several states and, according to officials, uncovered a wider network with medical professionals among its members, a detail that investigators say complicated early assumptions about the profile of those involved.
The NIA says its investigation remains active, with officials indicating that further arrests or chargesheets are possible as the agency continues to trace the module’s funding channels and its links to handlers based outside India. Security agencies have also stepped up monitoring of hospitals and medical colleges in parts of Jammu and Kashmir following revelations about the professional backgrounds of some of those charged. The case has renewed debate about how such a well-resourced, professionally staffed module could operate undetected for as long as it apparently did.
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