On November 10, 2025, a deadly explosion shattered the calm near New Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, killing at least ten people and injuring thirty-two others. The blast, which Indian authorities quickly labeled a "heinous terror incident," set off a sweeping wave of security operations that has gripped both the Indian capital and the disputed region of Kashmir in a state of anxiety and unrest. As the investigation unfolded, it became clear that the consequences would ripple far beyond the immediate victims, ensnaring families, professionals, and entire communities in its wake.
According to reports by the Associated Press and NBC News, Indian investigators immediately zeroed in on Kashmir, a region already fraught with political tension and a long history of conflict. Within hours of the explosion, security forces launched a massive crackdown: raids swept through neighborhoods, hundreds were detained, and thousands were questioned for any possible connection to the attack. The focus, authorities said, was to dismantle what they described as a militant cell believed to be operating from Kashmir to the outskirts of New Delhi.
Among those caught up in the dragnet was Bilal Ahmed Wani, a 55-year-old dry fruit seller from Kashmir. Wani’s ordeal began on November 14, when police detained his eldest son, Jasir Bilal Wani, a student. The next day, authorities also held Wani himself, his younger son, and his brother, who works as a physics lecturer. Wani and his younger son were released that evening; his brother was freed after Wani’s own tragic death. But the trauma of detention lingered. According to family members who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals, the stress and humiliation of the experience drove Wani to despair. The morning after his release, he walked outside his home, doused himself in gasoline, and set himself on fire. Despite being rushed to three hospitals, Wani died a day later from what police confirmed were "self-inflicted burn injuries."
The Wani family’s tragedy is emblematic of the broader climate of fear and suspicion that has gripped Kashmir since the New Delhi blast. Relatives insisted that the detained men were innocent, accusing authorities of using them as scapegoats. “He returned home a day later, distraught and broken,” one family member recounted, describing the toll the crackdown had taken on Wani’s mental health.
The investigation’s focus soon turned to a suspected suicide bomber, identified by India’s National Investigation Agency as Umar Un Nabi, a doctor from Kashmir. Authorities said the car used in the New Delhi blast was registered to a Kashmiri man and alleged that Wani’s son, Jasir, "worked closely with the terrorist Umar Un Nabi to plan the terror carnage." According to officials, Jasir provided technical support by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets. He remains in custody as the investigation continues.
The crackdown did not stop with the Wani family. Police arrested at least seven people, including two Kashmiri doctors, and seized a significant cache of bomb-making material in Faridabad, a city near New Delhi. On November 14, some of these explosives, which had been transported to a police station in Srinagar, detonated, killing at least nine people. The region’s top police officer, Nalin Prabhat, ruled out sabotage, suggesting that mishandling of the explosives was the likely cause of the deadly accident.
In the days that followed, government forces demolished the family home of Umar Un Nabi in Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district—a tactic authorities have used previously against those accused of aiding militants. The crackdown intensified further, with special attention paid to what police described as a "white-collar terror ecosystem," targeting radicalized professionals and students, especially Kashmiri doctors. Security officials sought details about doctors’ personal backgrounds, professional networks, and ideological leanings, a move that sent waves of anxiety and fear through the region’s medical community. Several doctors, speaking anonymously, described the scrutiny as both unprecedented and deeply intrusive.
This latest wave of security operations is considered by many observers to be the most severe since 2019, when the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status, stripping the region of its autonomy and imposing sweeping restrictions. According to Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, the political disenfranchisement that followed the 2019 decision "is fueling a groundswell of quiet anger and a resurgence of militancy." Since then, authorities have stepped up their campaigns against pro-freedom groups, the press, and rights activists, seeking to shape what New Delhi calls "Naya Kashmir," or a "new Kashmir." But critics argue that the territory’s people have been largely silenced, their civil liberties sharply curtailed, and that New Delhi has shown little tolerance for dissent of any kind.
Avinash Mohananey, a former Indian intelligence officer who has worked extensively in both Kashmir and Pakistan, offered a stark assessment of the situation. He noted that the alleged militant module involved highly educated individuals and reflected "deep anger that has been building beneath the surface for a long time." Mohananey explained that Kashmiris "feel disempowered and humiliated" by the ongoing political situation and the lack of progress toward their aspirations.
The roots of the current crisis run deep. Militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989, with India maintaining that the militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan, for its part, denies these charges, while many Kashmiris see the conflict as a legitimate struggle for freedom. The territory remains bitterly contested, with both India and Pakistan administering parts of Kashmir but claiming it in its entirety.
The ongoing crackdown, observers say, is only adding to the sense of insecurity and vulnerability among Kashmir’s residents. Donthi argued that "a moderate approach by New Delhi to the region would be far more effective in preventing any further cycle of violence." Instead, he warned, the current strategy "is adding to the existing sense of pervasive insecurity and vulnerability, which is unlikely to help address the alienation and anger, but rather to fan them further."
For many in Kashmir, the events of November 2025 have become yet another chapter in a long saga of conflict, suspicion, and loss. The death of Bilal Ahmed Wani, a shopkeeper whose only apparent crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, stands as a stark reminder of the human cost of sweeping security measures. As the investigation into the New Delhi blast continues, the region remains tense, its people caught between the search for justice and the struggle for dignity in a land where both seem increasingly elusive.
