Indian investigators have named the man who they claim was driving the car that blew up last Monday near the landmark Red Fort monument in capital Delhi.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s counter-terrorism agency, named Umar Un Nabi as the “alleged suicide bomber” in the incident that killed 10 and injured 32 others.
A doctor from Indian-administered Kashmir, Umar was working as an assistant professor in the general medicine department at Al-Falah University in Faridabad, a Delhi suburb, the NIA said, adding that it had established the driver’s identity forensically.
Umar’s father and sister-in-law told the BBC that they “can’t and don’t know” anything about it.
The agency named Umar on Sunday after it said it had arrested a man – also a resident of Indian-administered Kashmir – in whose name the car used in the blast was allegedly registered.
The explosion last week came just hours after Kashmir police said they had arrested seven men in recent weeks from different parts of India and seized 2,900kg of explosives from Faridabad – the same suburb of Delhi where Umar lived and worked.
The NIA had last week confirmed to the BBC that they were investigating if the blast had any links to the arrests and seizure.
Even though the police or the NIA had not named him officially, Umar’s name hit the headlines in India within hours of the blast.
That night, his parents’ home was overrun with security forces carrying out searches and four of his family members were taken into custody. They included his two brothers, sister and her husband, who are yet to be released.
The family has faced other action too. Late on Thursday night, their home in a village in Kashmir’s Pulwama district was demolished by the security forces.
The BBC visited his parental home a couple of days before it was razed and found the family and their neighbours in shock. They said they learnt about the deadly events of Sunday evening and allegations against Umar from social media.
Umar’s photograph was all over the news channels and had gone viral. At his home, a dozen reporters and camera crews mobbed his father, a retired school teacher, asking him questions about Umar.
What transpired on the night of the blast and the days after has irrevocably changed his family’s life, he told the BBC.
The family, he said, owned only one car, which was parked outside their home. “We didn’t know about this car that the police are saying was involved in the bombing,” he added.
Several teams of investigators visited their home through the night, asking questions about Umar, including when he last visited home and when the family spoke to him.
His father was too disturbed to answer more questions, but other family members and neighbours helped piece together what transpired that night.
One of Umar’s brothers received a call within minutes of the blast from security forces, summoning him for questioning, the family told the BBC.
He was allowed to leave after nearly three hours, but soon after he reached home, security forces came and arrested him. A little later, a second team of investigators picked up his second brother and seized their laptops and phones.
At dawn, a third team arrived and conducted a thorough search of the house. Three hours later, when they left, Umar’s mother was asked to accompany them. A few hours later, his father was also summoned by the police. The couple were later released after their DNA samples were collected.
The Kashmir police and their Special Investigating Agency (SIA), who are probing the case, have refused to comment on the arrests and the demolition, telling the BBC that “it was an ongoing investigation”.
Meanwhile, Umar’s family and neighbours are still trying to fathom what happened.
One relative said everyone was traumatised by the news of the deadly explosion. Many said they were shocked by the news of the blast and the alleged link to their village.
The family are staring at a bleak winter ahead, with their home turned into rubble. Late on Thursday night, security forces returned and asked all the family members to leave, a relative told the BBC on Monday.
“A little later, we heard a loud blast and the house was razed to the ground,” he said.
He added that, ahead of winter, the family that includes Umar’s parents, a pregnant sister-in-law and small children were now homeless, sheltering in a relative’s home.
He refused to answer any more questions saying “we have nothing to say, what was done is done”.
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