UN report links AQIS to Red Fort blast

Srinagar, Aug 13: The November 2025 blast near Delhi’s Red Fort has now been officially attributed to Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in a United Nations Security Council monitoring report, adding an international dimension to an investigation in which the National Investigation Agency has identified a Pulwama-based doctor as the main perpetrator.
The UN Security Council’s 38th Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team report states that the November 2025 attack on the Red Fort in Delhi was officially attributed to AQIS. The development comes after the NIA’s investigation had already linked the accused to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), which the agency describes as an AQIS offshoot.
The Nov 10, 2025 vehicle-borne blast killed 11 people and injured several others. The NIA subsequently launched a wide-ranging investigation spanning Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi-NCR.
At the centre of the NIA investigation was Dr Umer Un Nabi, a Pulwama resident and former Assistant Professor of Medicine at Al-Falah University in Faridabad. The agency identified him as the main perpetrator. Nabi died in the explosion, and the NIA has proposed abatement of the proceedings against him.
In May 2026, the NIA filed a 7,500-page chargesheet against 10 accused in the case. According to the agency, all 10 were linked to AGuH, which it described as an offshoot of AQIS. The chargesheet was based on 588 witness statements, more than 395 documents and over 200 seized material exhibits.
The investigation subsequently widened.
In June, the NIA chargesheeted three additional accused, taking the total number of people chargesheeted in the case to 13, including the deceased Umer Un Nabi. Among the three was Dr Muzafar Ahmad, an MBBS and MD-qualified paediatrician who is absconding and has been described by the agency as one of the alleged prime architects of the conspiracy.
According to the NIA, Muzafar Ahmad was a founding member of what it calls “AGuH Interim” and attended a secret meeting in Srinagar in June 2022 at which the organisation was allegedly established.
The agency has further alleged that Muzafar, Umer Un Nabi, Dr Muzammil Shakeel, Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather and Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay were involved in the conspiracy that culminated in the Red Fort blast. The NIA has alleged that explosive devices were manufactured, tested and stored at a clandestine facility at Al-Falah University in Faridabad.
The case therefore moved considerably beyond the identification of the man who was inside the vehicle when it exploded. The investigation has alleged the involvement of a wider network, including several medical professionals, and has sought to establish how the conspiracy was organised and financed.
The NIA’s May chargesheet described some of the accused as radicalised medical professionals who were allegedly influenced by AQIS/AGuH ideology. It alleged that the group had reconstituted AGuH as “AGuH Interim” following an earlier failed attempt to travel to Afghanistan through Turkey.
The latest UN finding independently places the Red Fort attack within the AQIS network identified in the Indian investigation.
However, the findings concerning individual accused persons remain allegations to be tested through the judicial process. The UN attribution of the attack to AQIS does not by itself constitute a judicial finding of guilt against every individual named in the NIA case.
The Red Fort investigation has consequently developed into a case involving an alleged AQIS-linked network, a deceased doctor identified by the NIA as the main perpetrator, several other accused including medical professionals, and one alleged prime conspirator who remains absconding. [KNT]