Uttar Pradesh: Red Fort Blast Accused Planned Lucknow Landmark Attacks, NIA Reveals

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has uncovered a significant terror plot involving accused individuals from the Red Fort blast case who allegedly conducted reconnaissance in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, with the intent to carry out attacks on key city landmarks. The investigation indicates that the accused had identified prominent government buildings and public spaces as potential targets.

Information was available with The Chenab Times that two key figures, Dr. Muzammil Shakeel and Dr. Shaheen Saeed, travelled from Faridabad, Haryana, to Lucknow between August 25 and August 30, 2025. This trip was described as a deliberate reconnaissance mission to scout locations for a planned terror conspiracy.

During their visit, Dr. Muzammil Shakeel reportedly conducted hostile reconnaissance of various targets that symbolized the government in Uttar Pradesh. His scouting included the areas around the Vidhan Sabha, Bapu Bhawan (the civil secretariat), and high-footfall locations such as Imambara, Lal Bagh, and Aminabad. Official sources indicated that these places were considered suitable targets, with plans being contemplated to detonate an explosives-laden vehicle near these building complexes.

The NIA’s ongoing probe has further revealed that Dr. Muzammil utilized his mobile phone to search for chemical shops in Lucknow that stocked precursor chemicals necessary for manufacturing Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP). TATP, an unstable peroxide explosive internationally known as the ‘Mother of Satan,’ was reportedly used in the Red Fort car blast that occurred in Delhi on November 10 of the previous year. Following Dr. Muzammil’s instructions, Dr. Shaheen Saeed copied the names of these relevant shops by hand, a list that was later recovered from her phone by the NIA.

The two accused individuals stayed at the residence of one of Dr. Shaheen Saeed’s relatives in Lucknow. Her ancestral home, where her father resides separately, is located in Khandari Bazar, Lal Bagh. Further inquiries revealed that Dr. Muzammil had engaged a ‘witness,’ a local resident of Lucknow familiar with the city, to physically visit these shops and ascertain the availability of chemicals in large quantities. This local contact was enlisted to conduct the enquiries discreetly, as Dr. Muzammil, being an outsider, could have attracted immediate suspicion.

The accused also reportedly searched for a remote location within the city to conduct clandestine explosive manufacturing operations. This mirrors their operational method at a rented house in Khori Jamalpur in Faridabad. The NIA’s comprehensive investigation, which involved multiple eyewitness testimonies and extensive technical and financial analysis, has reportedly established the complete sequence of events during the Lucknow visit.

These findings are part of a substantial 7,500-page chargesheet filed by the NIA on May 14, pertaining to the high-intensity vehicle-borne IED blast that occurred in the national capital on November 10 last year. The anti-terror agency’s investigation suggests that the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), an interim terror module linked to Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), aimed to establish a covert base in Lucknow. The objective was to launch a series of blasts employing the same explosive manufacturing technique used in the Red Fort blast.

The terror module, also referred to as the ‘doctor’ or ‘white-collar’ module due to the involvement of medical professionals, had its plans disrupted with its dismantling. The NIA’s detailed scientific and forensic investigation exposed a wider ‘jihadi conspiracy,’ revealing that the accused, some of whom were radicalized medical professionals, were inspired by the AQIS/AGuH ideology to execute deadly attacks, according to the NIA chargesheet.

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