Disbelief, Shock In Pulwama Village After Security Forces Raze Down Delhi Blast Accused’s Family Home
Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district demolished the house of Delhi bomber Dr Umar Nabi during the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
Published : November 14, 2025 at 7:56 AM IST
Srinagar: The family home of Dr Umar Nabi, who was accused in the Red Fort blast in Delhi, which killed 13 civilians, has been razed down by security forces on Thursday and Friday midnight in Koil, Pulwama, in Jammu and Kashmir.
The demolition follows a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah warned of punishment for those involved in the Delhi blast. "All those who committed this cowardly act and those behind it will be brought before the law and given the strictest possible punishment. The Government of India and the Ministry of Home Affairs are fully committed to ensuring this,” Shah said.
Dr Umar, who was a senior resident at the Al Falah University in Faridabad in Haryana, was reportedly found behind the wheel of the Hyundai i20 that was laden with explosives. Delhi police have said that the DNA samples collected from the blasted car matched those of his mother.
Jammu and Kashmir police have not yet issued any statement about the demolition of the house, although around noon, its officials visited the site to collect samples for a forensic test.
The investigating agencies have rounded up dozens of suspected persons in Kashmir and other places to probe their links with the Delhi blast in which 13 civilians were killed and more than 20 were injured. The crackdown began after the Jammu and Kashmir police said it had arrested seven persons, including two doctors-Dr Muzamil Shakeel Ganai of Koil and Dr Adil Majeed Rather of Kulgam, and busted an interstate and transnational terror module.
Locals and neighbours in Koil village said that around 7 pm on Thursday, security forces cordoned off the locality and asked all the nearby residents to vacate their houses. The locals said that they heard the first moderate-intensity blast around 12:30, then two loud explosions around 1.15 am and 2.30 am. While Dr Umar’s family's two-storey home lies in rubble, around 12 houses have their glass window panes broken, and shards of glass are lying in the premises of those houses.
Days before the Koil village, which lies four kilometres from Pulwama town and 45 kilometres from Srinagar, would live in pride that it has produced 35 doctors, among them Dr Umar Nabi and Dr Muzamil Shakeel were counted among the “bright and genius”. Now, after the Delhi blast, disbelief and shock have filled its residents who watch every stranger with suspicion, avoiding speaking about the Delhi blast and anything related to the two doctors.
The locals, who didn't want to be named, said that the sister-in-law of Muzamil and the mother of Dr Umar Nabi, Shameema, was at their home when security forces cordoned off the area. His two brothers, Zahoor Ilahi Bhat and Ashiq Hussain Bhat, have continued to be in police detention since the Delhi blast. Umar’s father, Ghulam Nabi Bhat, has been out of his senses for several years.
The moderate two-storey house, which was two days before thronged by locals and reporters, is now lying in mounds of rubble with household items turned into pieces and hundreds of leaflets of books scattered around the rubble. Neighbours said that Dr Umar was the family’s last hope as it does not own any farmland. “His earnings from a few years had helped the family raise another storey of the modest house. Both the earner and the house are gone now. The family is now scattered and shattered,” another local said.
A neighbour, who has five family members, said that Security forces called them out after the cordon on Thursday evening. “We stayed with neighbours throughout the night, hearing loud blasts. At dawn, when calls for prayers were made, we saw the house of Ghulam Nabi Bhat (father of Dr Umar Nabi) razed down and lying in pieces,” he said.
“My one-storey small home, which I built in five years, is shattered. All its new glass windows are broken,” another neighbour pointed out while wiping the dust from the broken window sills.
A close neighbour of Dr Umar, Ghulam Nabi Bhat (sharing a similar name as Dr Umar’s father), has eight family members in the modest one-storey house. Two rooms of this house are completely destroyed, with the bedding covered by dust and shards of glass and wood. “How will we live in the winter without a house?” one woman of the Bhat’s said, without revealing her name.
Reacting to the demolition of Dr Umar's family home, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said those who make decisions to destroy houses should rethink their decisions. “If these could stop terrorism, it could have ended by now. You destroyed several homes after Pahalgam (attack). Did it stop? I fear these actions will fuel more anger and resentment. But we are not authorised to take these decisions; those who take such decisions should think whether they are able to stop terrorism with such actions,” he said.
Referring to his stint as CM from 2008-2014, when security and law and order were under his authority, Omar said the militancy declined, yet they didn't blow up houses.
His disgruntled party colleague and MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi said demolishing a home won’t deliver “punishment”, but it inflicts collective suffering.
“Making an entire family homeless during the harsh winter of Kashmir without evidence/court order, or any law linking them to the incident is an act of cruelty. It doesn’t bring justice to the innocent lives that we lost in the terror attack, and it doesn’t achieve the ends of justice. Hold the actual perpetrators accountable through lawful investigation. Mass detentions, coercive interrogations, and illegal demolitions will not bring peace; they will drag Kashmir back by decades,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
The demolition of the houses of the families of the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir began after the deadly Pahalgam attack in April this year, when 25 tourists and a local pony operator were killed. Following the attack, security forces swooped on the Valley, detaining hundreds of suspects until they cracked down on the attackers and their facilitators, while razing down houses of 10 local terrorists. The demolition was stopped after regional parties, including the ruling party, the National Conference, and the PDP, criticised the move.
Also Read
1. New CCTV Footage of Red Fort Blast Shows Exact Moment Of Explosion
2. Delhi Blast: DNA Test Confirms Dr Umar Nabi Was Driving Car That Exploded, Say Police Sources
