Jammu and Kashmir Police have detained the parents of Dr Umar Nabi — the prime suspect in the New Delhi blast — from south Kashmir’s Pulwama district for DNA testing, officials said.
The samples will be matched with bodies lying at a Delhi hospital to determine whether Umar was killed in the explosion or remains at large.
According to police, Umar was part of a terror module and went into hiding after two doctors from Haryana’s Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur were arrested after a module of proscribed outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) was busted.
“ Umar is the prime suspect, and the blast appears to have been carried out by the same inter-state module that was recently busted,” a senior police officer said. “We have detained at least six people for questioning, including a doctor friend of Umar.”
Umar, who had been working at Al-Falah University in Faridabad, was on the run after the arrest of Dr Muzammil Ganai from Faridabad for alleged links to a terror module.
Police said they seized around 3,000 kg of explosives, chemicals, reagents, inflammable material, electronic circuits, timers, and ammunition from the group. This included 350 kg of explosive material recovered from Faridabad-based Muzammil Ganai.
The alleged module was uncovered during an investigation into the appearance of Jaish posters on the outskirts of Srinagar city.
In Pulwama’s Koil area, Umar’s family said they last spoke to him on Friday. “He had been outside Jammu and Kashmir for the last one-and-a-half years,” said Umar’s sister-in-law.
Several other residents of Pulwama have been detained for questioning since Monday night. Among them is Amir Rashid of Samboora village, reportedly the current owner of the car used in the blast. His brother and three other local men have also been picked for questioning, sources said.
