Lucknow/New Delhi, November 15: Indian investigators detained five more people, including two doctors and two staff members of a private university, as part of a widening probe into a suspected “white-collar” terror module linked to Monday’s fatal car blast near the Red Fort in Delhi, officials said on Thursday.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) picked up Dr Mohammad Arif Mir, a 32-year-old cardiologist from Kanpur, and Dr Farukh, a gynecologist from GS Medical College in Hapur, on suspicion of being associated with Dr Shaheen Shahid, a Lucknow-origin doctor arrested this month in Faridabad. Both doctors, originally from Jammu and Kashmir, were later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and taken to Delhi for questioning.
Dr Mir, who hails from Anantnag, was detained late Wednesday from the Cardiology Institute of GSVM Medical College, while Dr Farukh was taken from his hostel on Thursday afternoon. Police later searched Dr Mir’s rented flat in Kanpur and seized his laptop and phone for forensic examination.
Preliminary findings suggest Mir may have known Dr Umar Un Nabi, who was driving the vehicle that exploded near the Red Fort, through a medical college in Kashmir. Investigators said Mir and Shahid had been in regular contact in recent months, though the nature of their communication remains unclear. Farukh is believed to have studied with Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie, who was arrested after explosives were recovered from a room he had rented in Faridabad.
The NIA also detained Mohammad Jamil, a staffer at Faridabad’s Al-Falah University, accusing him of facilitating the hiring of several Kashmiri-origin doctors who had previously faced scrutiny at other institutions. Investigators said they recovered encrypted messages and coded entries from Jamil’s electronic devices.
Two others — Wasid Khan, a compounder at the university, and his brother-in-law Mohammad Faheem — were picked up in Faridabad after officers found a red Ford EcoSport linked to Umar parked outside Faheem’s home. Police believe Wasid moved the vehicle there on Umar’s instructions before abandoning it.
Delhi Police’s Special Cell has also identified another doctor, Dr Muzaffar Ahmad Rather, who travelled to Turkey with Umar and Ganaie in 2022. The trio allegedly met Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) handlers during their 21-day stay, an officer said. Rather, a paediatrician and the elder brother of a doctor earlier arrested in a JeM-related case, left for Dubai in August and may have later travelled to Afghanistan, investigators said.
“We are trying to bring him back. His name surfaced during the interrogation of the arrested accused,” the officer said. The expanding probe suggests the existence of a network of Kashmir-origin medical professionals who may have been recruited into a covert terror module operating under academic and institutional cover, officials said.
