Missing Pulwama doctor 'was driving car' that exploded near Red Fort

A doctor from Kashmir, who was working at a hospital in Haryana and was on the run after the J&K Police busted a “white-collar” inter-state terror module, is the likely suspect who was driving the i20 car that exploded near the Red Fort in Delhi on Monday evening, killing 12 persons and injuring several others.

Police sources told The Tribune on Tuesday that the investigation had indicated that the blast in Delhi was “linked” to the terror module.

They said Dr Umer un-Nabi, who was working with a private hospital — Al-Falah University — at Dhauj in Faridabad, went into hiding soon after Dr Muzamil Ahmad Ganai, his university colleague, was arrested. The arrest had led to the recovery of over 2,900 kg of material, used in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs), in Faridabad.

Both doctors belong to Koil town of Pulwama in South Kashmir.

Late Monday night, the security forces arrived at Umer’s house, and picked up his two brothers for questioning. On Tuesday morning, Umer’s mother was taken for DNA profiling — to match it with the victims of the Delhi blast. Hours later on Tuesday, Umer’s father, who, the family says, remains “mostly confined to his room and is unwell”, was also detained by the police.

A senior police official said they had been looking for Umer ever since they arrested Muzamil. “Apparently, he had come to know that the game was over and went underground. Now, an investigation is underway to establish Umer’s role... It is suspected he was the one driving the car when it exploded,” the official said.

Back in Umer’s home in Pulwama, only his sister-in-law Muzamila Akhter, is present, surrounded by few of her relatives and neighbours. She says it has come as a shocker for the entire family.

“Umer was among the toppers and his only goal was studies…we are not ready to accept that he was involved in anything like this,” she said, adding that the family had worked hard so that he could complete his studies and take care of them.

She said the family spoke to him last Friday and Umer informed them that he would come back home in the coming days. According to her, they came to know about the incident late Monday night when the police arrived at their home looking for his brothers.

In the same Koil village, the family of Muzamil, who was also working at Al-Falah University and was arrested by the J&K Police, is unable to accept that he is involved in the case. The arrest of Muzamil, the family says, has brought “doomsday” for them. His sister was to get married two days ago, but the family cancelled the function.

“The police told us he is a terrorist. I cannot believe that,” said his sister Dr Asmat Shakeel.

Demanding a probe into the matter, she said, “See his police record, or that of any members. We have a clean record; no one is ready to accept that he was involved in a militant activity.”

His younger brother, Azad Shakeel, echoes Asmat. “Why would my brother do this? He was always into studies and even asked us to focus on studies. One person cannot become a militant in a day. There has to be past involvement…my brother was not involved anywhere,” she said.

Both families said they did not know each other — even though the two doctors were working in the same university and belong to the same village.

Police sources, however, said the two doctors were in touch since 2018.

The J&K Police have so far arrested eight persons, including three doctors — two from Kashmir — in the terror module which, the J&K police said, involved Pakistani terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Al-Qaida offshoot Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. The raids carried out by the police spanned Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.