NIA raids locations as Murshidabad link to Delhi blast surfaces
The Statesman | 13 November 2025
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted extensive searches in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district in connection with Monday’s car explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort.
Within 48 hours of the blast, an NIA investigation team arrived in Bengal after a phone number traced from one of the arrested suspects in Delhi, led them to a man in Murshidabad’s Nim village, under Nabagram police station. The number, sources said, belonged to Moinul Hasan, a migrant worker, who had previously travelled to Delhi and Mumbai for work. According to investigators, Moinul is believed to have come in contact with suspected members of a terror module during his stay outside Bengal.
Acting on the intelligence input, seven NIA officers, assisted by local police, carried out an early morning raid at his residence. He was interrogated for several hours and his mobile devices and documents were seized for forensic examination. Officials said that the operation was not confined to Nim village alone. Raids were also conducted in other pockets of Murshidabad district, where several names have surfaced during questioning. “Some leads point to possible local support networks,” an official involved in the search said, without revealing further details.
The NIA’s move comes amid widening investigations into the Red Fort blast, in which 15 people have so far been detained. Investigators are also probing the role of four doctors, suspected to be key operatives of a so-called ‘white-collar terror module’ based in Faridabad, Haryana. According to preliminary findings, the group was planning coordinated attacks in major Indian cities, and had been stockpiling explosives for months. The Delhi blast, investigators believe, may have occurred prematurely due to mishandling or haste, averting a larger catastrophe.
Murshidabad’s emergence in the investigation has raised concerns, as the district has earlier figured in terror-related probes. In February this year, several members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) — an extremist outfit with cross-border links — were arrested from the area. Subsequent raids across Assam and other states had led to the recovery of arms and documents indicating a wider network. Security agencies are now examining whether the Murshidabad connection to the Delhi blast is an isolated communication link or part of a larger recruitment and logistics chain operating through migrant networks.
Investigations are continuing, and NIA sources indicated that more arrests could follow in the coming days as digital forensics and call records are analysed.