Sources said on Sunday that Umar-un-Nabi, the Kashmiri doctor who was driving the Hyundai i20 that exploded near Delhi’s Red Fort on November 10, had deliberately skipped the wedding of his co-conspirator, Adeel Ahmed Rather, earlier this year because of serious differences over ideology and the financing of the blast operation.
Umar, who was affiliated with Al-Falah University in Faridabad, Haryana—an institution that has now emerged as a key link in the Delhi car blast investigation—adhered strictly to the ideology of the terror group ISIS. In contrast, the other accused in the case followed the ideology of al-Qaeda, the sources said.
Although both ISIS and al-Qaeda trace their origins to Salafism and Jihadism, the two organisations differ sharply in their strategic priorities, their approach to the use of violence, their sectarian outlook, and their views on the timing and nature of establishing a caliphate.
It was precisely this ideological rift that led Umar—described as the most radically committed member of the “white-collar” terror module responsible for the Delhi blast—to boycott Adeel Ahmed Rather’s wedding in Jammu and Kashmir. Adeel has since been arrested.
However, in October this year, Umar travelled to Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir in an attempt to patch up differences with other members of the group and ensure the smooth execution of their plan to carry out multiple blasts, the sources added.
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Besides ideology, Umar also clashed with the others over financial matters and the operational methods for the attack.
He was given approximately Rs 26 lakh to procure explosives and arrange other logistics, but he became upset when he was asked to provide a detailed account of the expenditure, according to the sources. Umar himself contributed Rs 2 lakh to the module’s funds, while Adeel Ahmed Rather contributed Rs 8 lakh.
Two other arrested accused, Shaheen Saeed and Muzammil Shakeel, each contributed Rs 5 lakh, and Adeel’s brother, Muzaffar Ahmed Rather—who has reportedly fled the country—provided Rs 6 lakh, the sources said.
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