New Delhi, November 14, 2025
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) dropped a seismic update in the Delhi Red Fort blast probe Friday, unmasking Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander "Ghost"—real name Abdul Rehman Makki—as the shadowy architect behind the November 11 car bombing that tore through Chandni Chowk's throng, killing 10 innocents and maiming 24. Traced to a fortified safehouse in Lahore's Ichhra neighborhood via a digital breadcrumb trail of encrypted apps and hawala wires, the Pakistan-based operative now faces a global dragnet after India secured an Interpol Red Notice, marking a bold escalation in the cross-border manhunt that could strain Indo-Pak ties to breaking point.
The breakthrough, unveiled at a high-security NIA briefing in Lodhi Colony, pieced together a chilling mosaic: Makki, a LeT veteran with a $5 million US bounty for prior Mumbai links, allegedly greenlit the attack from his Lahore lair, coordinating a sleeper cell of five Indian recruits radicalized via Telegram channels. "Ghost isn't a specter anymore—he's cornered," declared NIA Director General Sadhvi Rakesh, flanked by Delhi Police brass and RAW liaisons. "Digital forensics cracked his VPN veil: From Lahore, he wired Rs 50 lakh through Dubai hawala for the Maruti Dzire's ammonium nitrate payload, sourced from Bihar's black market." The sedan, traced to a Ghaziabad scrapyard via chassis ghosts, detonated at 6:45 p.m. on Diwali eve, its ball-bearing shrapnel shredding e-rickshaws and scattering limbs near the Red Fort's Lahori Gate—a site symbolizing India's Mughal resilience now scarred by jihadist ire.
Makki's Red Notice—India's 15th against LeT this year—seeks his provisional arrest for extradition on UAPA charges, including conspiracy and waging war. Interpol's alert, circulated to 194 member states, flags his aliases (Saqlain, Chota Rehman) and last sighting: A grainy CCTV frame from a Lahore mosque last month, beard trimmed, evading drones. "This isn't just Delhi's fight—it's global jihad's front line," Rakesh added, crediting AI-sifted chatter from 500 terabytes of seized phones, including the blast driver's—now-deceased—device with Makki's voice notes in Pashto: "Strike the heart of infidels on their festival of lights."
The probe's tentacles sprawl: Dawn raids Thursday netted two more suspects in Delhi's Okhla—a Pakistani-origin mechanic and a JNU dropout—in a joint NIA-CRPF op that yielded bomb-making manuals and $10,000 in crypto. Five arrests total, with chargesheets slated by November 20. Eyewitness horrors from the inferno—body parts amid flaming rickshaws—fuel the fury: "Ghost turned our market into a graveyard; drag him to justice," wept survivor Meera Sharma, her shrapnel scars a stark reminder at GTB Hospital.
Politically, the revelation roils the cauldron. PM Narendra Modi, en route from G20 sidelines in Rio, condemned it as "Pakistan's proxy perfidy," vowing "unflinching retaliation" in a video address that spiked national outrage. Home Minister Amit Shah, chairing a CCS meet, authorized Rs 100 crore for urban intel upgrades, while Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi urged "beyond headlines—disclose the full intel failure dossier." Across the border, Islamabad's FO dismissed the claims as "Indian fabrications," but sources whisper of ISI jitters, with Makki—a Hafiz Saeed kin—under loose house arrest since 2020's UN sanctions.
As Chandni Chowk's soot-streaked stalls reopen under CRPF shadows—Diwali lamps flickering defiantly—the Red Notice is more than paper: It's a summons to a shadow war. With LeT's Khanqah legacy in Lahore under quiet siege, Ghost's haunt may end in handcuffs. For Delhi's 10 fallen, it's a whisper of reckoning—in a city where blasts echo, but resolve endures.
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