Involvement of radicalised doctors from Kashmir in Red Fort blast has shocked India

As personnel from Srinagar’s Nowgam police station examined the CCTV footage to find out who had pasted the threatening posters of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad at multiple locations in Bunpora Nowgam on October 19, familiar faces popped up on the screen. Their questioning led the Jammu and Kashmir Police to a cleric, Moulvi Irfan Ahmad Wagay, a resident of Shopian who conducted prayers at a Nowgam mosque.

Irfan, widely known as “Mufti Sahab”, was the first lead that blew the lid off a close-knit Jaish module working outside Jammu and Kashmir and comprising four doctors — Dr Umer-un-Nabi, who blew himself up in a car bomb explosion close to the Red Fort in Delhi on November 10, co-villager Dr Muzamil Shakeel Ganai, Dr Adeel Rather from south Kashmir’s Kulgam and a Lucknow resident, Dr Shaheen Saeed.

As the police announced the busting of the inter-state terror module, it sent shockwaves across the country. Revelations about the white-collar module of “radicalised” doctors surprised even the security establishment. Three among the eight persons arrested so far are doctors. A doctor from Anantnag working in Pathankot has also been detained.

In 2021, there was a chance meeting between Dr Muzamil and Mufti Irfan at a hospital. Irfan was attending to a patient. “They immediately bonded because of their ideology and the journey began,” sources dealing with the ongoing investigation said.

Son of a farmer, Dr Muzamil (31) completed his MBBS from Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences (ASCOMS) in Jammu in 2017. He then joined the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar. Muzamil hails from a well-to-do family in Koil village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama. His younger sister is also a doctor and younger brother is preparing for UG-NEET.

After a stint at SKIMS in Srinagar, Dr Muzamil moved to Faridabad and joined the School of Medical Sciences and Research at Al Falah University.

It was from Faridabad that the J&K Police picked up Muzamil on October 30, leading to the recovery of 358 kg of ammonium nitrate and an assault rifle. Subsequently, the police recovered 2,563 kg of material used to make explosives from a house owned by a Mewat cleric, who was also detained in the case. (On Friday night, the recovered explosives that had been transported to Srinagar exploded inside the Nowgam police station, leading to several casualties. J&K Police chief Nalin Prabhat said the blast was accidental).

Muzamil led the police to Adeel, who worked in a private hospital at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The 35-year-old Adeel hails from Qazigund in Kulgam. He completed his MBBS in 2019 from Government Medical College (GMC) in Srinagar and did his MD from the same institute. After completion of his post-graduation, Adeel worked at GMC, Anantnag, till last year. Son of a government officer, Adeel’s brother is also a doctor, and is now wanted by security agencies. He is said to have moved out of the country before the module was busted.

In October last year, Adeel left for Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh where he worked in a private hospital. He was picked up by the J&K Police from Saharanpur. When Adeel worked at GMC in Anantnag, one of his colleagues was Dr Umer-un-Nabi, from the same village as Dr Muzamil.

Muzamil and Umer completed their MBBS in the same year though from different institutes in Jammu and Srinagar, respectively. Adeel and Umer both got their degrees from GMC, Srinagar. Adeel completed his MBBS two years after Umer.

Umer did his MD, too, from GMC, Srinagar. He secured the 17th state rank in the PG-NEET. Son of a senior teacher, who retired voluntarily after psychiatric health issues, Umer came from a lower middle-class family. Like Adeel, he worked at GMC, Anantnag, before leaving for the Medical College at Al Falah. He was an Assistant Professor there.

At Al Falah, Umer and Muzamil were in touch with another colleague — Shaheen Saeed, an Associate Professor from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Before moving to Al Falah, she was a teacher at GSVM Medical College in Kanpur. Shaheen’s brother is also a doctor. A divorcee, she has two children who live with the father.

It was after the police made arrests that Umer went into hiding — only to be seen in the CCTV footage after the car he was supposedly driving exploded outside Delhi’s Red Fort, killing over a dozen people.

DNA samples confirmed it was Umer who was driving the car.

The accused have been brought to Srinagar for grilling, as the investigators try to piece together the missing links, and figure out what led these doctors to take such extreme steps and plan terror strikes.

The investigators say the only common thread among the four doctors was their ideology and a perception that Muslims in India and the world are in danger and why ‘jihad’ is the only option.

“What we have gathered so far is that they would talk about oppression against the Muslim community, including in Palestine,” police sources said. “They believed that Muslims are in danger and the only solution is to fight back through jihad.”

Police sources say the ‘algorithm of conflict landscape’ played a part in their ‘radicalisation’.

“What happens on social media is that when you see a particular video, reel or post, especially related to conflict, you are bombarded with such content on your social media platform,” explains a top officer. “A constant beaming of such content, especially when you are alone, makes a huge impact on your psyche. This is what actually happened in this case. Social media played a role as well,” he says.

Umer, investigators say, was a recluse who “rarely” talked to anyone and lived alone. “He was more radicalised in the group and talked about suicide bombing as the only option,” according to police sources.

The group members becoming less socially active is also corroborated by the doctors in Faridabad who learned about the bombing and arrests with shock and disbelief.

“They wouldn’t even talk much with fellow Kashmiris or even those living next door,” a doctor said. He said all of them were deeply religious. “Umer wouldn’t talk much with anyone there. He would just keep to himself.”

A police officer says, “What we are seeing is the phenomenon of highly educated youth joining militant ranks in Kashmir and beyond. It is definitely a worrying trend and we need to take steps to address it.”

Back in the Valley, the families are not ready to accept the police version. “He (Muzamil) would just talk about books and studying. Whenever he would call, he would only ask how much syllabus I have completed… I was preparing for my wedding this month, which is now cancelled, and my brother would only ask how much I studied during the day,” said his sister, Dr Asmat Shakeel. “He was always engaged with books. How can he be accused of this?”

At their modest house at Koil village in Pulwama, Umer’s sister-in-law Muzamila Akhtar said he was a son every father would wish to have. “He called us (three days before the bombing) and said he would come home in three days.”

On Friday, meanwhile, Umer’s house was razed to the ground by the security forces through a controlled explosion.

A matter of concern in Kashmir is also how the Delhi bombing, the terror module expose and the arrest of the doctors have unleashed “a wave of hate and harassment” targeted at Kashmiris.

“The incident in New Delhi is deeply tragic and the loss of innocent lives is something we unequivocally condemn. Whoever is responsible should be brought to justice in accordance with law,” Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told The Tribune. He, however, said what is worrying “is the attempt in some quarters to link an entire community to the actions of a few individuals”.

“This is unfair, unjust, and only reinforces the sense of alienation that the people of Jammu and Kashmir already feel,” he said, adding that investigations shouldn’t lead to “collective suspicion or harassment of innocent family members, colleagues, or the wider community. Such sweeping generalisations only deepen mistrust”.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, too, has called for stringent punishment for those involved, but cautioned against branding all Kashmiris as terrorists.