FARIDABAD: Khandawali spent a panic-stricken sleepless night on Wednesday as investigators probing the terror module behind the Old Delhi blast swooped down on the Faridabad village.A red EcoSport registered with Dr Umar Un Nabi, the man who blew up an i20 outside Red Fort metro station, killing 12 people, was found in the village, parked outside the house of an autorickshaw driver.Soon after the car was spotted, teams of National Investigation Agency (NIA), National Security Guard (NSG), Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir police, and bomb disposal squads rushed to the spot and cordoned off the entire area. Residents living nearby were asked to vacate their homes immediately as forensic teams examined the car for explosives.Terrified by the sudden arrival of police vehicles and heavily armed personnel, villagers rushed to nearby fields and spent the cold night under the open sky. Many families said they had no access to food or water till Thursday afternoon.“We were inside our house when police arrived. Initially, there were only a few cops asking about the car. We told them it was parked by a fellow villager Faheem’s relative, Wasid. Later, a large number of police vehicles, bomb squads, NSG, and officers from Faridabad and J&K police surrounded our area. We were terror-struck,” said Sadiq Khan, a villager.Khan, his brother Lallu, an auto-rickshaw driver, and their families were among those questioned by police. “We just allowed a villager to park a car near my brother’s house. And now, our family is being looked at with suspicion. We spent the night in fields with our children and had nothing to eat for over 15 hours. My wife had to sleep at a relative’s house. I am a daily wager and earn around Rs 600 a day to feed my family. But I could not go to work on Thursday,” Khan sobbed.Villagers said the EcoSport was parked around 11am on Wednesday by Wasid, brother-in-law of Faheem. “Our village has been defamed. Media cameras are everywhere, and people are associating us with terror. Out of goodwill, we allowed a fellow villager to park his car. But now, we can’t even enter our own houses,” said Junaid, another resident.A woman living nearby said she was unable to feed her three-year-old child as police prevented her from returning home during the car’s inspection. “We were asked to stay away till the vehicle was declared safe. My child cried the whole night for milk,” she said.Cops towed the vehicle away on Thursday afternoon after a thorough forensic examination confirmed there were no explosives inside. A senior police officer present at the spot said the evacuation was purely a safety measure. “We wanted to ensure there were no explosives in the car. Villagers were asked to vacate the area only to keep them safe, not to harass them,” the officer said.Investigators suspect the car might have been used to transport part of the 3,000kg of explosives recovered earlier this week from two rooms rented out by Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie in Dhauj and Dehar Colony of Fatehpur Taga village, both located in Faridabad.As calm gradually returned to Khandawali, residents expressed hope that police would take strict action against the actual culprits. “We have always lived peacefully here. We want the accused punished so our children can feel safe again,” Khan added.
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