Red Fort blast: Forensic team recovers severed forearm 300m away from the blast site

Three days after the Red Fort car blast that killed 13 people, investigators on Thursday recovered a severed forearm from the roof of a store in New Lajpat Rai Market, roughly 300 metres from the explosion site. The limb has been sent for forensic examination as police continue to search for missing victims.

Forensic teams said high-grade explosives were used in the blast, with one sample “more powerful than ammonium nitrate,” according to officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). The FSL collected over 40 samples, including live ammunition, cartridges and explosive residue, from the area.

Initial post-mortem examinations showed victims suffered severe internal injuries, ruptured lungs, torn eardrums, intestinal damage and multiple fractures, injuries consistent with the force of a high-intensity explosion. Several deaths were attributed to excessive bleeding and blunt-force trauma from the shockwave.

The death toll rose to 13 on Thursday after 35-year-old Bilal Hasan, who had been on a ventilator at LNJP Hospital, succumbed to his injuries. Three others remain critical in the ICU.

The explosion took place on Monday evening, when a slow-moving Hyundai i20 halted near Gate No. 1 of the Red Fort Metro Station and burst into flames, injuring more than 20 people.

DNA tests have since confirmed that Dr Umar Nabi, an assistant professor at Al-Falah University in Faridabad, was driving the car. Investigators believe Umar detonated the device in panic after learning that his associates from a Faridabad-based Jaish-e-Mohammed-linked module had been arrested earlier that day.

Two of his associates, Dr Muzammil and Dr Shaheen, also from Al-Falah University, are suspected to be part of the same “white-collar” terror network. The arrest of Dr Shakeel, from whose premises authorities seized 2,900 kg of IED-making materials, is believed to have triggered Umar’s desperate act.

(With PTI inputs)