ONE OF the key handlers behind the Red Fort blast— identified as Dr Ukasha — is suspected to be based in Pachir Wa Agam district of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.
The district is home to Tora Bora mountains, the same rugged terrain that once sheltered Mujahideen fighters battling Soviet forces and later provided refuge to Osama bin Laden during the early days of the US invasion.
According to investigators, Ukasha is one of three foreign handlers who allegedly guided a small but highly skilled terror module of Kashmiri doctors that built the explosive device which ripped through Old Delhi on November 10. His suspected presence in Pachir Wa Agam — an area historically associated with some of the most hardened jihadist networks — has sharply raised the stakes of the ongoing probe.
Along with Ukasha, two other handlers—Hashim and Faisal Iqbal Bhat—are believed to have coordinated the group’s actions from across the border. The trio not only radicalised the doctors but also shared bomb-making tutorials, instructions on setting up clandestine laboratories at home, and precise operational guidance. Investigators say more than 40 videos on explosives and chemical mixing were sent to the group through encrypted platforms, primarily Telegram.
With digital footprints leading to Afghanistan and Pakistan, intelligence agencies have been asked to help determine the handlers’ real identities and exact locations.
One senior officer involved in the probe said the most sophisticated of them appears to be Faisal Iqbal Bhat. “He could be in Pakistan or Afghanistan. The nature of his chats indicate he could be an ISI operative. His conversations are sharp. He gives clear instructions and assigns roles and responsibilities to various members of the module. In many chats he is giving instructions on how to create Telegram channels for specific tasks,” the officer said.
While Hashim’s identity remains unclear, intelligence agencies believe Ukasha’s Afghan base and Faisal’s possible Pakistan link reflect an evolving ecosystem of cross-border handlers operating jointly through digital safehouses.
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The conspirators of the Delhi blast have been identified as Umar Nabi, who drove the i20 car that exploded near the Red Fort; Muzammil Ahmed Ganai, from whose rented flat in Faridabad about 350 kg of ammonium nitrate was recovered; Adeel Ahmed Rather; Shaheen Saeed Ansari and Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay. Barring Ansari, all the accused are from Kashmir.
Wagay, a Jaish-e-Mohammed asset in Kashmir, is being considered the lynchpin of the whole conspiracy. His digital footprints have been found across the terror landscape in Kashmir and Haryana. He was not only behind the JeM’s propaganda posters that came up overnight in Nowgam last month, but was also in touch with all the conspirators of the Delhi blast.
“He (Wagay) is a cleric from Shopian who used to provide logistical support to JeM operatives, help in transfer of weapons and funds and indoctrinate youth. It was the probe into the JeM posters that he engineered through three local youth that led to the discovery of this module. He has been educated in seminaries in Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh,” said an officer privy to probe details.
