Red Fort Blast, One Year On: The NIA Case, the '300 Arrests' and the Victims' Families, Explained

A year ago this evening, at 6:52 PM, a white car stopped at the red light in front of Delhi's Red Fort and exploded. Today, The Tribune reports, the same junction is crowded with post-Diwali shoppers and street-food stalls, with central armed police managing the traffic.

The case has moved a long way since that night. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) says it was a suicide bombing by a doctor, carried out for a revived al-Qaeda-linked module. It has charged 13 people. Officials are marking the anniversary with bigger numbers: 300 arrests and 73 deportations. Those numbers are not what most headlines imply. And families of the dead say the state's help has fallen short.

The 60-second version

• The attack: 10 November 2025, 6:52 PM, at the Red Fort traffic light, per The Tribune. The NIA says Dr Umar Un Nabi, an assistant professor at Al Falah University, Faridabad, set off an IED inside a Hyundai i20.
• Death toll: 15 in the NIA chargesheet, as reported by India Today and ThePrint. The Hindu counts 13 civilians plus the bomber, and 20 injured.
• The accused: 13 chargesheeted, including doctors Muzammil Ganie and Shaheen Saeed. One, Dr Muzzafar Rather, is absconding and believed to be in Afghanistan, PTI reports.
• The court: cognisance taken on 29 August 2026. The case is at arguments on framing of charges, The Tribune says.
• The numbers: PTI's 300 arrests are in a crackdown on the Shahzad Bhatti Network, not the Red Fort case. 73 is fugitives returned from abroad over the year.
• The families: ex-gratia ranged from Rs 10 lakh for the dead to Rs 20,000 for minor injuries. Families told The Hindu it was not enough.

What the NIA says happened

India Today's account of the NIA chargesheet, which it says runs to 7,500 pages, is the most detailed public version. It says:

• Nabi was inside the car when it exploded. DNA from biological material at the site confirmed that. The IED was activated from inside the vehicle by a command mechanism.
• Forensic tests found traces of TATP and ammonium nitrate.
• Nabi was the alleged mastermind and "operational in-charge" of a revived Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), which India Today describes as a designated offshoot of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. He had worked since early 2022 to revive it.
• Reconnaissance of the Red Fort goes back to December 2023. The NIA says the fort was chosen as a "symbol of the Indian state".
• The date was not planned. The NIA says Nabi rushed the attack after a series of arrests in Srinagar, fearing the net was closing.

The Tribune adds that the NIA alleges the group reorganised as "AGuH Interim" at a 2022 meeting in Srinagar and planned an operation it called "Operation Heavenly Hind". It also says the NIA alleges Nabi used the aliases Pinda and Rahul Bhat.

PTI's officials give an alternative account of the original target. They believe Nabi was planning a larger vehicle bomb around 6 December 2025, the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary, at a crowded place in Delhi or a site of religious importance. That is the officials' belief, given anonymously, not a line from the chargesheet.

How a poster in Srinagar led to Faridabad

PTI's anniversary report retraces the investigation. It began with posters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed on the outskirts of Srinagar on the night of 18-19 October 2025, warning of attacks on police. Srinagar police, under SSP G V Sundeep Chakravarthy, treated it as more than a one-off, and CCTV led to three local arrests. Their questioning led to Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned imam from Shopian, who allegedly supplied the posters and radicalised the doctors.

That trail reached Al Falah University, where police arrested Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie of Pulwama and Dr Shaheen Sayeed of Lucknow, and seized arms and about 2,900 kg of ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and sulphur, according to PTI. With the net closing, PTI says, Nabi began moving his base in an explosive-laden car. The blast at the Red Fort followed.

Names are spelled differently in different reports (Ganie and Ganaie, Saeed and Sayeed). They refer to the same accused.

The current alert in Kashmir, with four wanted posters at Lal Chowk, is in our Lal Chowk explainer.

Who is charged, and the money trail

ThePrint, which says it has seen the chargesheet, lists the accused who drew the most attention: Nabi (A-1), Muzammil Ganie (A-4), Shaheen Saeed (A-6) and Bilal Naseer Malla, all faculty members at Al Falah, plus Adeel Ahmad Rather, a Kashmiri based in Saharanpur when arrested, and Shopian cleric Irfan Ahmed Wagay (A-7). PTI adds Dr Muzzafar Rather, an absconding paediatrician believed to be in Afghanistan.

The NIA's money case, as ThePrint reports it, centres on Saeed. The agency alleges she gave Rs 16 lakh in two tranches to Ganie, described in the chargesheet as "Treasurer of the Interim AGuH", and that the money paid for pistols, rifles and the second-hand i20. It alleges she split withdrawals to stay under the Rs 10 lakh limit that triggers a large cash transaction form. It also says an AK-47 was recovered from her car. India Today reports the accused used Signal and met in Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi-NCR.

PTI's officials say Nabi and Ganie met Jaish overground workers on a 2021 trip to Turkiye, per the interrogation of co-accused. That is what the co-accused are reported to have said, not a finding.

Every one of these points is an allegation in a prosecution document. None has been tested at trial.

Where the trial stands

The Tribune's timeline:

1. 14 May 2026: NIA files its chargesheet.
2. 27 June 2026: supplementary chargesheet.
3. 29 August 2026: the special NIA court in Delhi takes cognisance.
4. Now: arguments on the framing of charges against the arrested accused.

The prosecution complaint, The Tribune says, rests on 588 oral testimonies, more than 395 documents and over 200 seized exhibits. Framing of charges is the step where the judge decides what each accused will be tried for. Evidence is led only after that.

What '300 arrests, 73 deportations' actually means

PTI's anniversary story, quoting unnamed officials, ran under a headline that tied the Red Fort blast to 300 arrests and 73 deportations. Read the body and the numbers belong to the wider year:

• PRAHAAR: officials say the blast led to a national counter-terror policy, "PRAHAAR: National CT Policy and Strategy", unveiled on 23 February 2026.
• 300 arrests: these were in a crackdown on the Pakistan-based, ISI-backed Shahzad Bhatti Network, with more than 100 FIRs. The network was designated a terrorist organisation under the UAPA on 26 September 2026.
• 27 arrests of operatives inspired by the JMB across Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• 73 fugitives returned from abroad over the year, helped by an extradition portal launched in September.
• Ammonium nitrate: an official said there are now periodic surprise checks on its sale.

Those are official claims, not independently verified. The Red Fort case itself has 13 accused.

The families, a year later

The Hindu spoke to families. Amar Kataria, 38, who ran a pharmacy in Bhagirath Palace, was killed on his way home. His father-in-law said his widow has barely left the house. Bhawani Shankar Sharma, 34, a taxi driver, suffered a head injury and still has memory problems; his brother said he lost his car, his only income. Nouman Ansari, 18, from Shamli, was the family's only earner.

The Delhi government's ex-gratia, The Hindu reports, was Rs 10 lakh per family of the dead, Rs 5 lakh for permanent disability, Rs 2 lakh for serious injury and Rs 20,000 for minor injury. Kataria's father-in-law called the response "cold-hearted" and said a request for a job for his daughter, who has an MBA, went unanswered. Sharma's brother said the family got Rs 2 lakh against far larger losses.

Ashok Randhawa of the South Asian Forum for People Against Terror told the paper that some victims with life-changing injuries, such as hearing loss, were classed as minor. He said the Union Home Ministry had written that victims should be covered under the Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims, and that the High Court had told the government to address the concerns. He is holding a tribute near Lal Qila Metro station today.

What to watch next

1. Charges. The special NIA court's order on framing of charges is the next real step in the case.
2. The absconder. Whether Dr Muzzafar Rather is traced or extradited. PTI says he is believed to be in Afghanistan.
3. Compensation. Whether the Delhi government or the Centre revises payouts under the CSACV scheme after the High Court direction Randhawa described.
4. Al Falah University. The NIA alleges its campus and labs were used. Any regulatory action against the institution will be closely followed.
5. Today's security. Agencies are on high alert for the anniversary, PTI reports, and Kashmir is under a separate alert.

A year on, the Red Fort junction looks normal again. The court case is still at its first formal step, and the families say they are still waiting for adequate help.

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The time of the blast, the scene today, the 15 deaths, the trial timeline (14 May, 27 June, 29 August), the framing-of-charges stage, the 588 testimonies, 395 documents and 200 exhibits, "AGuH Interim", "Operation Heavenly Hind" and Nabi's aliases are from The Tribune (Rahul Gahlawat, updated 5:01 AM IST on 10 November 2026). The chargesheet's 7,500 pages, the suicide-bombing finding, DNA, the command mechanism, TATP and ammonium nitrate traces, AGuH and AQIS, reconnaissance from December 2023, the "symbol of the Indian state" line, the unplanned date and Signal are from India Today (9 September 2026). The accused list, the Rs 16 lakh allegation, the withdrawal pattern and the AK-47 are from ThePrint (Mayank Kumar, 10 September 2026), which says it has seen the chargesheet. The investigation trail, the 2,900 kg seizure, Muzzafar Rather, the December 6 belief, the Turkiye trip, PRAHAAR, the Shahzad Bhatti Network, the 300 arrests, 100 FIRs, UAPA designation, 27 JMB-linked arrests, the extradition portal and the 73 fugitives are from PTI (Sumir Kaul, 9 November 2026, via ThePrint and The Tribune), quoting unnamed officials. The victims' accounts, the 13 civilian deaths and 20 injuries, the ex-gratia amounts, the CSACV letter, the High Court direction as described, and today's tribute are from The Hindu (Shrimansi Kaushik, 5:00 AM IST on 10 November 2026). All accused are presumed innocent until a court rules.