A screengrab of the CCTV camera footage showing Umar Nabi and (R) Adeel Ahmad Rather.
The blast near Red Fort in Delhi on Monday, which took the lives of 12 people, and the recovery of 2,900 kg of bomb-making material from two rented rooms in Haryana’s Faridabad, have brought to light a new dimension in India’s security landscape — white-collar radicalisation.
The suspected involvement of doctors, including three from Kashmir, in the conspiracy has exposed a disturbing transformation in the country’s terror ecosystem. According to investigators, the incident marks a shift from conventional militancy to a more insidious form of extremism, where educated professionals are being drawn into Pakistan-backed networks operating quietly from within Indian cities.
Initial forensic analysis has revealed that chemical traces from the blast site match the ammonium nitrate recovered in Faridabad, indicating a direct link between the two incidents.
Here is what we know about five doctors suspected to be involved in the case and their network.
Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, alias Musaib, a resident of Koil area of Pulwama in Kashmir. He worked as a doctor in the Al-Falah University hospital and taught MBBS students. Around 360 kg of explosives, suspected to be ammonium nitrate, and a huge cache of arms and ammunition were recovered from his rented accommodation in Faridabad. Muzammil Ganaie had conducted multiple reconnaissances of the Red Fort area in January this year, police analysing his mobile dump data said.
Adeel Ahmad Rather was a resident of south Kashmir's Anantnag. He was working in V Bros Hospitals in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Rather was arrested from Saharanpur by a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh police for his alleged links to a Jaish-e-Mohammed-inspired terror module. Investigators traced him after CCTV camera footage in Srinagar showed a man putting up posters supporting the banned outfit.
Umar Nabi, a resident of Pulwama in south Kashmir, has emerged as the prime suspect in the car blast. He was a doctor at Al-Falah Medical College. He allegedly carried out the terror attack as he feared he might be caught like his fellow doctors.
Shaheen Shahid, a Lucknow-based doctor associated with Al-Falah Medical College, was leading the Jaish-e-Mohammed's women recruitment wing in India, according to the police. She headed the Jamaat-ul-Mominat, the group's female wing, they said.
Parvez Ansari, a Lucknow-based doctor, is the younger brother of Shaheen Shahid, has been detained by a team of the Uttar Pradesh police and Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with the Delhi blast.
Three weeks before the blast near Red Fort, multiple JeM posters were found pasted at different locations in Srinagar, threatening and intimidating police and security forces.
That was the starting point of the investigation by the Jammu and Kashmir police, leading to the unravelling of the inter-State terror network.