Blast At Red Fort Bomber’s Kashmir Home Leaves Nearby Houses Damaged Too

Demolition of the house of the Delhi blast accused using explosives has damaged nearly half a dozen adjacent houses, while security forces have also arrested many  of his relatives in connection with the case

Ishfaq Naseem

The house of the Delhi blast accused, Dr Umer-un-Nabi,  who allegedly drove an explosive-laden car and blew it up, resulting in the death of at least thirteen people and injuries to others, has been reduced to rubble after the security forces demolished it using explosives. At least half a dozen houses in the Koil area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama have also been damaged in the blast that shook the area last week.

The house was demolished in the intervening night of Thursday, November 13,  and Friday, November 14, and now what has been left at the site is a heap of bricks, splintered wood, warped sheets of iron, damaged household goods and bedding torn to shreds. Mounds of sand and gravel covered the concrete plinth— the only part of the house that survived after the security forces blasted it.

The house was razed days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that Umer drove the vehicle packed with explosives on the streets of the national capital, which blasted off, leaving at least thirteen people dead and many others injured.

After the blast, Umer’s parents have been staying at the houses of some neighbours, while the blast also left some houses of his relatives damaged.  Besides the house of the Delhi blast accused, two other houses have also been damaged, with one fully destroyed, while the other has suffered partial damage. A few houses in the vicinity have also suffered cracks  while the window panes of some were also broken due to the heavy impact of the blast.

At least twenty relatives of Umer have faced questioning, while some are under detention, say the family members. According to them, two of the detained relatives are  government employees.

Umer’s father, Ghulam Nabi Bhat, says that his wife and daughter-in-law are staying at the house of one of their neighbors, while he was himself forced to take shelter at another house after the demolition of their house. He also says that two of his sons are also under detention. “We have nowhere to go after the damage to our house. We don’t know how to survive the harsh winter,” says Bhat, who retired as a government teacher and has denied the involvement of his son in the Delhi blast. However, the NIA has said that it has forensically established the identity of Umer as the one who drove the vehicle packed with explosives.

Muzamil Rehman, Umer’s sister-in-law, says that after the Delhi blast, security forces had raided their house, and her husband, who works as a plumber, was among those who had been detained.

Kulsooma Akhtar, 38, whose house was severely damaged  due to the impact of the blast, says that the large number of security force personnel cordoned off the area and ordered them to move out to some other place on the day they demolished Umer’s house.

“We were forced to stay at the houses of neighbours during the night  when Umer’s house was blasted using some explosives,” she says.

Security force personnel have been monitoring the activity of Umer’s family and their acquaintances following the Delhi blast and have been frequently combing the area.

Tabasum Ara, whose house was among those which were damaged, showed the cracks at her home, saying that it was damaged due to the blast.  “We were asked to vacate our houses along with the children, and Umer’s house was blasted late in the night. When we had moved out, the house was blasted after around three hours ,” she says.

Local residents say that the impact was so heavy that the people felt it even from a distance of several meters from the blast site.