Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Aug 13
J&K Police have not received any information linking the November 2025 vehicle-borne suicide bombing near New Delhi’s Red Fort to Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the region’s top police officer said on Thursday, despite a recent United Nations assessment attributing the attack to the militant group.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vidhi Kumar Birdi said the police had so far not been apprised of the United Nations Security Council’s attribution of the attack to AQIS.
“No such thing has come to our notice so far,” Birdi told reporters while reviewing security arrangements ahead of India’s Independence Day celebrations.
The comments came after a report by the UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team linked the high-intensity blast to AQIS, highlighting the group’s growing reliance on smaller, decentralised cells embedded in urban areas.
The November 10 attack took place at a busy traffic signal near the Red Fort and killed between 11 and 15 people, according to the material provided. Dozens were injured.
Indian investigators identified the suicide bomber as Dr Umer-un-Nabi, a medical professional and assistant professor at Al-Falah University in Faridabad. The National Investigation Agency later alleged that a highly educated militant network involving doctors and other medical professionals had been operating from Faridabad and had manufactured the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.
The NIA has filed a 7500-page chargesheet against the accused, according to the supplied report, alleging links to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, described as an AQIS offshoot. The trial is underway.
The UN assessment said AQIS was evolving into a more regional organisation, increasingly relying on small, decentralised and urban-based cells rather than larger logistical networks.
Birdi said Kashmir Police remained focused on preventing any security threat during Independence Day events, with multi-layered security arrangements deployed across the Valley.
He did not comment on the substance of the U.N. assessment, but said no specific attribution to AQIS had been communicated to Kashmir Police.
