Why would a bunch of highly educated and radicalised individuals, plotting what they thought were perfect terror strikes without leaving a trace, commit the silly mistake of getting posters pasted in J&K carrying the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad’s proclamations, which finally blew their cover away? It was possibly a cocky radicalised medical practitioner who wanted to negate a claim by Union home minister Amit Shah on June 30 that no local had joined any terror outfit in the past six months, adding all terrorists liquidated around that time in the Union Territory were of foreign origin. Security forces learnt that Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, 32, a junior doctor at Al Falah University in Faridabad, persuaded his handler Maulvi Irfan Ahmad Wagay, 31, to get the Jaish posters pasted on October 18-19.
The posters appeared at Bunpora in Nowgam area on the outskirts of Srinagar. Scribbled in broken Urdu, they were signed by Commander Hanzala Bhai, dated October 17. They warned the locals against sheltering or helping security forces or the J&K administration. One poster said, “We are watching that you are still engaged in ‘crimes’. Desist, else we will take action according to Sharia.” Another poster stated: “Some people are supporting security forces. This is the last warning…. We know who the informers are. They won’t be spared.”
Such posters were a regular feature from the 1990s till the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in J&K and enhanced security in the Valley. Srinagar’s Senior Superintendent of Police Dr G V Sundeep Chakravarthy found the latest posters odd, got an FIR registered under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substances Act and Arms Act, and ordered a probe. It unraveled one of the country’s biggest terror modules comprising doctors, engineers and other professionals. Three youth who pasted the posters -- Arif Nisar Dar (alias Sahil), Yasir-ul-Ashraf and Maqsood Ahmad Dar – all residents of Nowgam, claimed they were acting on instructions from a local cleric, Maulvi Irfan.
The handler
The contact list on Maulvi Irfan’s mobile phone had quite a few doctors, which made the police suspicious. They then learnt he was employed for five-six years as a paramedic at the Government Medical College in Srinagar before becoming a maulvi, hence his association with doctors. Upon interrogation, the police found he was a “highly radicalised overground operative” having links with Jaish handlers in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His operations were not limited to Kashmir but spanned across India. He had radicalised many youth of the region with his anti-India propaganda, including a bunch of highly educated professionals. Maulvi Irfan was in direct touch with Umar bin Khattab in Pakistan, a Jaish operative, through encrypted mobile applications, intelligence officers said.
Maulvi Irfan’s interrogation led the local police to Zameer Ahmad Ahanger (alias Mutlasha), 29. He was arrested on October 25 from Wakoora village at Ganderbal in Kashmir. Ahanger had provided logistical support to the terrorists on Maulvi Irfan’s directions. Interrogation of both Maulvi Irfan and Ahanger revealed the network of radicalised doctors.
Car bomb
Cut to November 10 at 6.52 pm. A Hyundai i20 car exploded at a busy traffic intersection outside gate number 1 of the Chandni Chowk metro station opposite the historic Delhi’s Red Fort. It was the first fidayeen attack outside J&K in a long time, an audacious message to the Indian security grid not to take the internal peace and tranquility for granted. Control rooms at the Multi-Agency Centre, a national intelligence-sharing hub that operates under the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and police establishments of J&K, Delhi and Haryana, were racing against time for almost a month to avert such an attack. As many as 13 people lost their lives in the explosion. Behind the wheel of the i20 was Dr Umar Ul Nabi, another radicalised medical practitioner working at Al Falah. DNA sampling revealed he perished in the explosion.
The terror network
A few days before the car bomb, a J&K police team visited Haryana’s Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. From Faridabad’s Al Falah on October 30-31 night, they arrested Dr Ganaie (Shakeel), who hails from Koil village in Pulwama. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at Al Falah. Maulvi Irfan and Dr Ganaie had first met in 2021 at Soura Hospital in Srinagar when they had gone to visit an ailing religious scholar from Tral. That interaction led to the radicalisation of Dr Ganaie and his subsequent involvement in terror activities.
His interrogation led to the arrest of Dr Adeel Ahmad Rather who hails from Wanpora in Kulgam, in Kashmir, on November 6. Son of a retired revenue official, Dr Rather did his MBBS at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Srinagar and was previously posted as senior resident doctor at GMC Anantnag. He had worked with Dr Umar Un Nabi, the Delhi bomber. A private hospital in Saharanpur had hired Dr Rather as a specialist. After his interrogation and searches, the police managed to recover an AK-56 rifle with ammunition from an old locker at the medical college in Anantnag where he had previously worked.
Dr Rather has two elder brothers and a sister. The eldest sibling, Zakir Ahmad Rather, is a veterinary scientist. His sister Gowhar Jan, a postgraduate in medicine from Kashmir University, married Muzaffer Ahmad Shah, who runs a pharmaceutical business in Kulgam. Their other brother is a paediatrician, Dr Muzaffar Ahmad Rather, 33. He is suspected to be holed up in the Kunar region of Afghanistan. He allegedly liaisons between the Kashmir terror cell and the Afghanistan-based Jaish terror module. Sources said Muzaffar, Ganaie and Umar travelled to Turkey in March 2022 and wanted to go to Afghanistan, but could not make it and returned. Later, Muzaffar entered Afghanistan via Dubai.
The joint interrogation of Dr Adeel Ahmad Rather and Dr Ganaie led to raids at multiple rented accommodations in Faridabad where explosives and weapons were stored. On November 9, law enforcement agencies raided a rented accommodation at Dhauj area in Faridabad, from where they recovered over 350 kg of suspected ammonium nitrate, AK-56 assault rifles, handguns, timing devices and ammunition. The following day, they recovered about 2,563 kg of explosive making materials like ammonium nitrate, chemicals and reagents, and electronic circuits for bomb-making from another location in Faridabad.
The investigative team started looking for other associates in the terror ring – Dr Shaheen Saeed (Shahid) and Dr Umar Un Nabi. On November 11, the police managed to arrest Dr Shaheen Saeed, who reportedly was in a relationship with Dr Ganaie, from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. She was a faculty member at Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences. The police recovered a Swift Dzire car registered in her name and an AK-Krinkov assault rifle, three magazines, a pistol with live rounds and two empty cartridges. She claimed she had sold the vehicle to Dr Ganaie, though the car’s registration was not changed. It is alleged that she had made multiple visits to Jammu and Kashmir and had met Maulvi Irfan.
Suicide bomber
With the security forces hot on his heels, Dr Umar Un Nabi, who hails from Koil village in Kashmir’s Pulwama, carried out the fidayeen attack in the national capital. He did his MBBS and master’s at GMC, Srinagar. It was while working as senior resident at GMC Anantnag that he met Dr Adeel Rather. Umar later joined as assistant professor at the Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre. His family told police that he was very studious and the brightest in town. His sister-in-law Shagufta Jan said: “He was our only hope to come out of poverty.” During interrogation of all the arrested accused, law enforcement agencies found he was the most radicalised them all and was prepared to be a suicide bomber.
A day after the suicide bomb, the government transferred the case the National Investigation Agency (NIA). However, it was decided that NIA, IB, J&K Police and Delhi Police Special Cell will continue to work in tandem on the case.
Other arrests
On November 12, the J&K police detained Dr Sajad Malik who hails from Pulwama for questioning about Dr Umar Un Nabi. They are now looking for Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, another employee at Al-Falah University. Dr Hassan, was sacked by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in November 2023 from Srinagar’s SHMS Hospital over alleged terror links. A lookout notice has been issued against him.
On November 14, Nisar Alam, a MBBS student of Al-Falah University, was arrested at Dalkhola in North Dinajpur district in West Bengal. Alam, whose family has been residing in Ludhiana in Punjab for several years while maintaining their ancestral home in Dalkhola. He was allegedly radicalized by Dr Ganaie.
In all, names of 22 professionals, including doctors and engineers, have cropped up so far up in the probe against the terror module.