Explained: Footprint In India Of Pak-Based Terror Group Linked To Delhi Blast

The investigation into the Delhi Red Fort car blast is examining all possible links between the terrorists involved and Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, officials familiar with the probe told NDTV Tuesday.

Established between 1999 and 2000 by Masood Azhar – after his release in the IC-814 hostage swap – the JeM operates out of Pakistan's Bahawalpur and is accused of multiple attacks on India, including an assault on Parliament in 2001 and on a military convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in 2019.

However, despite retaliatory strikes in each case - strikes intel sources said neutralised its infrastructure and killed senior leaders, including Masood Azhar's younger brother, Abdul Rauf Azhar, who masterminded the IC-814 hijack – the group thrives, largely due to support from the Pak deep state.

The group's India operations are believed to be significant, despite regular raids and arrests by Indian security and anti-terror agencies, such as the one in December last year when the NIA raided 19 locations across J&K and four states based on intel about terrorist propaganda.

The Jaish's India leadership is nebulous and de-centralised and that makes it difficult to pin down and eliminate. On the ground, field commanders, often of Pakistani-origin, are high-ranking personnel deputed to lead attacks, whether in J&K or in other states.

These commanders are HVTs, or high-value targets. For example, in July 2025 a 'top Jaish commander' was killed in a gunfight with security personnel J&K Police chief Nalin Prabhat said.

The group also uses local sympathisers to provide logistical support.

These people are designated OGW, or over ground workers, and are critical in ensuring terrorist cells have access to weapons, intelligence, and cash, and often also provide real-time information during an attack or distract security forces at key moments by creating diversions.

Red Fort car bomb

Intelligence sources told NDTV the four terrorists behind the Red Fort attack – three men and a woman, whose cover identities were doctors – are likely part of a Jaish terror module that infiltrated India post-Op Sindoor, India's military response to the April 2025 Pahalgam attack.

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Three – Adil Ahmad Rather, Mujammil Shakeel, and Shaheena Shahid – have been arrested.

Shakeel was arrested from Haryana's Faridabad after a J&K Police team raided two residential buildings linked to him and recovered nearly 3,000 kg of explosive substances, including 350 kg of ammonium nitrate, the material used in the Red Fort car bomb. In fact, sources close to the investigation told NDTV the Red Fort attack may have been a panicked response to the arrest.

READ | Panicked Doctor Triggered Delhi Blast? Suicide Attack Angle Being Probed

The fourth – Umar Mohammed – is presumed to have died in the blast; preliminary forensic analysis suggests the ANFO, or ammonium nitrate fuel oil, bomb was detonated manually, and available CCTV footage does not show him leaving it since it entered Delhi Monday morning.

READ | Arrested UP Doctor Tasked With Setting Up Jaish's Women Wing In India

Investigators also believe Shahid heads the India chapter of the JeM's women's wing – the Jamat ul-Muminat - that intelligence said was set up in August 2025, to raise funds and recruit after Op Sindoor.

READ | Sadiya Azhar And Pak Terror Group's Women Wing Link To Red Fort Blast

Part of that re-building was to launch the 'woman's wing' and Masood Azhar's younger sister, Sadiya Azhar, was put in charge. She and another sister, Samaira Azhar, have been conducting 'online classes', sources told NDTV, of 40 minutes each, to indoctrinate and recruit women to their cause.

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