NEW DELHI: Investigative agencies have identified a total of 22 doctors, engineers and educated professionals who are part of the white-collar Jaish-e-Mohammed terror module that carried out the Delhi blast in which 13 people were killed.
The agencies said they were planning multiple blasts, with materials already procured, reconnaissance completed and devices ready. “They were all awaiting final authorisation from their Pakistan handler but got busted,” said a senior investigator.
Different teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) with the help of local law enforcement agencies are carrying out raids in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country to trace and arrest them. Multiple agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate, are engaged and coordinating to completely dismantle the module.
“Lookout alerts have been issued at all the international airports and borders so that the accused do not leave the country,” said a senior security officer, adding that local police have been alerted at all major railway stations.
Maulvi Irfan Ahmad Wagay, arrested on October 19 from Nowgam in Jammu and Kashmir, was in direct touch through the Threema app with Jaish-e-Mohammed handlers based in Pakistan under direct supervision of UN-designated wanted terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, said officials.
The electronic devices seized from his residence indicate that he used three separate encrypted apps to maintain direct contact with JeM handlers and the 22 members of the module. The names of all the 22 were extracted from the three apps.
Irfan, an imam at Nowgam mosque who worked earlier as a paramedical staff member at Government Medical College in Srinagar, is the key behind the module, said investigators. His GMC job had given him access to medical students. Being a preacher at the mosque, he radicalised them and pushed them toward an extremist ideology.
The probe started on October 19 when JeM posters were found at Bunpora Nowgam. The posters threatened police and security personnel for working with the government. Investigative agencies zeroed in on Irfan and then the Faridabad module.
It was after Irfan’s arrest that all the members of the module went dark, stopping the use of mobile phones and computers. “The explosion in Delhi was a desperate attempt with an improvised vehicle-borne IED,” said an investigator.
In Faridabad, a room in building number 17 located inside Al Falah University was allegedly the nerve centre where three doctors of the terror module regularly met to plot a series of attacks in Delhi, investigators said.
Sleuths of central security agencies on Thursday visited the room and described it as the command post of the terror operatives which was used for coordination and secret meetings. “Room no 13 located in the boys’ hostel building 17 belonged to Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganai. The three arrested doctors used to meet for hours in the room to plot attacks in the national capital,” said an NIA official.
Dr Muzammil and Dr Shaheen Sayeed, both doctors at Al Falah Hospital, which is under the university, were arrested on October 30 and November 10, respectively. Another doctor, Umar Mohammad Nabi, the lone occupant of the Hyundai i20 that exploded near the Red Fort on Monday, was connected to Al Falah University. Nabi is believed to have died in the blast.
Sources said investigators and forensic teams have collected chemical residues, glassware, and other material from a laboratory inside the Al-Falah Medical College, located within the university’s campus.
“The lab and room 13 have been sealed. During the search, we recovered electronic devices including pen drives, which have been sent for examination,” said the official.