Syrian Handler, Turkey Meeting, 40 Tutorials And 'Colonel': NIA Maps Foreign Trail Behind Delhi Blast

Dr Umar Nabi, the suicide bomber in the Delhi blast that claimed 15 lives, had met a Syrian terror operative in Türkiye in 2022 along with other accused on the directions of Pakistani handler Ukasha, sources

said. Following the Türkiye meeting, Umar enrolled himself at the Al Falah University in Faridabad, they added. A slow-moving Hyundai i20, driven by Dr Umar, exploded near the Red Fort area last week evening. The blast came hours after the security agencies busted a 'white-collar terror module' in Haryana's Faridabad, leading to the recovery of 2,900 kg of explosives and the arrest of three doctors.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has traced a sprawling foreign terror network behind the Delhi blast, uncovering a chain of foreign handlers, radicalisation routes and encrypted communication. Delhi bomber Umar, along with Dr Muzammil, Dr Adeel, and Dr Muzaffar Rather, had travelled to Türkiye in 2022 for a secret meeting with a Syrian, who is believed to be part of a larger terror grid.The Syrian handler, described as a “highly trained operative”, convinced Umar that he must participate in a “bigger operation”, the sources said. The meeting was arranged on the instructions of a key handler named Ukasha, investigators believe, according to sources. Apart from Ukasha, the other handler has been identified as Hanzullah, they said.

After returning from there, Umar joined the Al Falah University and started working on the terror module. The sources revealed that over 40 bomb making videos were sent to Muzammil by foreign handlers through encrypted social media applications. Another foreign handlers under agencies' scanner has been identified as 'Colonel', they said. The 'colonel', who many suspect is Md Faisal, is accused of radicalising engineering students in Karnataka. A pseudonym that has been linked to a series of attacks in South India including the Rameshwaram Blast in 2024, the Pressure Cooker Blast in an Autorickshaw in Mangalore and the Coimbatore Blast in 2022.