New Delhi, Nov. 23 -- The chain of events that began with a few threatening posters in a Srinagar neighbourhood has now exploded-literally-into one of India's most chilling cases of "white-collar" terrorism. The Jammu and Kashmir Police initiated their investigation after threatening JeM posters appeared at several locations in the Bunpora Nowgam area on 19 October 2025. What seemed like a routine probe into a small local attempt at intimidation has instead exposed a sprawling, meticulously linked terror network populated not by stereotypical foot-soldiers but by educated professionals-scholars, doctors, faculty members-people who, by conventional logic, we assume are insulated from violent radicalisation.
In the initial sweep, J&K Police picked up a few suspects, including Irfan Ahmad, a 24-year-old Muslim scholar from Shopian who preached at a local Srinagar mosque. His interrogation opened the first door. He named another individual-Adeel Rather, a doctor from Wanpora village, Kulgam, arrested from Saharanpur in UP. Police claim that an assault rifle was recovered from his locker in the Government Medical College, Anantnag. That seizure, shocking enough on its own, led investigators further down a disturbing trail.
During Dr Adeel's interrogation, he named another doctor-Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganai, a senior resident at Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Faridabad. Arrested on 30 October, he quickly became the pivot around which the entire case widened. Joint searches by J&K and Haryana police at locations rented in Dr Muzammil's name revealed a scale of preparation that is staggering: 358 kgs of suspected ammonium nitrate, Krinkov assault rifles, 83 live cartridges, pistols, bomb-making paraphernalia, 12 suitcases stuffed with explosives, timers, batteries, remote controls, and a walkie-talkie set. The discoveries didn't end there. Two days later, searches at Dehar Colony, also in Dhauj, produced another 2,563 kgs of explosives and flammable material, including a Chinese pistol, a Beretta, an AK-56 rifle, a Krinkov rifle and ammunition. A police officer stated that the sheer volume indicated plans for large-scale terrorist attacks.
What is most alarming is the profile of those involved. Hours before the Delhi blast, eight people-three of them doctors-were arrested, and over 2,500 kgs of explosives were seized. A Swift car linked to Muzammil, registered in the name of a woman doctor, Dr Shaheen Shahid, was recovered. She, too, was arrested after weapons were found in her car. Investigators are now probing how long Dr Muzammil and Dr Shaheen Shahid had been in contact and the extent of her involvement, especially since intelligence sources say she was tasked with establishing a women's wing of JeM in India.
And then came 10 November. Around 6:52 PM, a white Hyundai i20 stopped at a signal near Red Fort. Within seconds, a blast ripped through the vehicle, killing 13 innocent people and injuring many others. What followed was a painstaking reconstruction of ownership: Salman to Devender, Devender to Aamir, Aamir to Tariq, Tariq to Dr Umar Mohammad. A CCTV clip showed part of Umar's face before the explosion; later investigations matched DNA samples from the scene with those of his relatives. It is now believed that Dr Umar Nabi-another Kashmiri doctor-carried out the suicide attack.
This single, devastating act is now tied to a much broader conspiracy. Investigators say the plot was hatched in Pakistan, with directions flowing through handlers in Kashmir. The module is linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), both radical outfits with established ties to global and regional jihadist networks. JeM, founded 25 years ago with support from Pakistan's ISI, continues to pursue its objective of separating J&K from India. AGuH, though quieter after its founder, Zakir Rashid, was killed in 2019, appears to have been revived by new Pakistan-based leaders.
But the most jarring development is JeM's recent announcement of a new women's brigade-Jamaat-ul-Mominat-led by Saadia Azhar, sister of Masood Azhar. Intelligence agencies believe this new women's network is trying to spread influence in J&K, UP, Haryana and parts of South India, using online networks and WhatsApp groups to propagate its ideology. Investigators suspect that this newly formed brigade is behind the huge quantity of explosives recovered from Faridabad.
The Delhi blast, therefore, cannot be seen as an isolated incident. It is the violent culmination of a web of radicalisation that cuts through education levels, professional success, and even gender boundaries. The involvement of doctors-individuals trained to heal, to protect life-forces an uncomfortable reckoning. It undermines the simplistic assumption that extremism grows only in socio-economic deprivation. Instead, this case points to a far more troubling reality: that ideology, when nurtured and weaponised through transnational networks like JeM, can infiltrate even the most unexpected sections of society.
On 12 November, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) officially took over the case. Two days later, the house of Umar Nabi in Pulwama was demolished. But these administrative developments, necessary as they are, do not erase the fact that India has just witnessed one of its most sophisticated, deeply embedded terror modules-stretching from Kashmir to Faridabad to Lucknow-led not by stereotypical militants, but by people in lab coats, lecture halls and mosques.
This is not merely a law-and-order challenge. It is a wake-up call. Radicalisation is increasingly bypassing the socioeconomic filters we once relied on to predict vulnerability. It is operating quietly, efficiently, and digitally, across state lines and professional classes. And if India does not confront this evolving face of terror with sharper intelligence, deeper community interventions, and a far more nuanced understanding of how ideology spreads through educated circles, the Delhi blast will not be the last such tragedy-it will only be the first warning.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is a retired IPS officer, Adviser NatStrat and a former National Security Advisor in Mauritius
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.