After joining most of the dots in the current investigation, the picture is now fairly clear. The Jaish terror module, comprising doctors, was planning to carry out serial blasts in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Jaipur and other cities. Thousands of people could have lost their lives.
The government has described the Red Fort blast as an “act of terror”. The top leadership has vowed not to spare the masterminds behind this terror act. Timely detection of this module prevented the serial blasts from taking place and the network was smashed.
The top actors, mostly doctors, were rounded up, 2,900 kg explosives, assault rifles, timers, detonators were seized. But one terrorist doc managed to evade arrest and carried out the blast near Red Fort on Monday evening.
The terror module had purchased cars – one was blown up near Red Fort by Dr. Umar and the other was seized yesterday in Faridabad. One member of this terror module is still underground.
Questions now remain. How Al Falah university became the HQ of jihadi doctors? Who radicalized these doctors, mostly from Kashmir? Who gave jobs to Dr Muzammil, Dr Shaheen, Dr Umar and Dr Nisarul Hasan in Al Falah university? Why did their nefarious activities remain under wraps till now?
One needs to join the dots to reach a conclusion. Dhauj is a Muslim-dominated village in Faridabad, near Delhi. Al Falah University is spread over 76 acres here. Dr Muzammil was teaching medicine in this university for the last three years on a salary of Rs 9 lakhs.
Dr Muzammil appointed his girlfriend Dr Shaheen as assistant professor in this university. Earlier she used to teach in Kanpur medical college, but left the city in 2013. She was seen in Al Falah university only two years ago.
Investigation agencies suspect that Dr Shaheen probably got in touch with a terror group during this time. Soon afterwards, Dr Muzammil, Dr Shaheen and their doctor friends started purchasing material required to make explosives.
A month ago, Dr Muzammil rented three rooms in a village on the main road, 300 metres from the university. The two-storeyed building had seven rooms. Three days later, he stored 358 kg explosives in these rooms. The villagers did not suspect anything fishy. Some of them helped the doc in carrying the bags to these rooms.
Dr Muzammil then rented another single storeyed building in Fatehpur Tagga, three km from the university. The building belonged to Hafiz Ishtiaq, a frequent visitor to the university, where he struck a friendship with the doctor.
Both of them stocked a huge quantity of explosives and a large number of detonators in this building. The quantity of explosives gradually increased to 2,563 kg. Since the building was built on a piece of land surrounded by cultivated land, nobody suspected anything.
Room No 13 in Al Falah Medical College became the planning center for this terror module. It was the room where Dr Muzammil Shakeel used to sit. The doors of this room remained closed most of the time. The terror module members chatted with one another within a Telegram group.
To know how Dr Muzammil, Dr Shaheen and Hafiz Ishtiaq were nabbed by police, one must understand how J&K police reached Faridabad. It is another surprising part of this story.
On October 19, Jaish-e-Mohammed posters appeared in Kashmir Valley. The poster was in the name of Jaish commander Hanzala Bhai. On the poster was written, “we will take action and teach a lesson to those who allow Indians to sit in their shops”. The Jaish poster also threatened attacks on Indian armed forces. Police took note of the posters in Naugam.
On October 27, more than 25 such posters appeared and security agencies set up a team of 50 police officers to track the offenders. These officers went through footage of nearly 60 cctv cameras and zeroed in on three youths Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf and Maqsood Ahmed Dar. They were detained two days later.
During interrogation, the youths revealed that a moulvi named Irfan Ahmed had asked them to put up these posters. This moulvi, from Shopian, had worked as a paramedic in Anantnag medical college.
After interrogating Moulvi Irfan Ahmed, police came to know about Dr Adeel. Police confirmed his involvement from cctv footage in which the doctor was seen putting up the posters. Dr Adeel Ahmed was working as a resident doctor in Anantnag medical college. He later worked in a private hospital in Saharanpur, UP.
Dr Adeel’s phone was put under surveillance. It was revealed that he was in touch with Pakistani handlers. J&K Police, with UP anti-terrorist squad, arrested Dr Adeel. During interrogation, Dr Adeel disclosed about Dr Muzammil of Al Falah University, Faridabad. An AK-56 rifle and hand grenade was recovered from Anantnag medical college with the help of Dr Adeel.
J&K Police then arrested Dr Muzammil. He told police about 358 kg of ammonium nitrate hidden in a rented house in Faridabad, which was seized.
During interrogation, Dr Muzammil spilled out about Dr Shaheen Saeed. She hailed from Lucknow, and was working in Al Falah university with him. Police then arrested Dr Shaheen and seized one A-47 rifle.
Dr Muzammil also told police about Haji Ishtiaq of Mewat, Haryana. Ishtiaq was nabbed and, at his instance, police recovered nearly 2,500 kg of ammonium nitrate from his building.
During interrogation of these suspects, police came to know about Dr Umar, who had studied with Dr Muzammil in Srinagar government medical college and was presently working in Al Falah university. By this time, Dr Umar knew that his time was up. He fled in his car carrying explosives.
On November 10, Dr Umar left Faridabad in the morning, went to Badarpur, Sarita Vihar and Mayur Vihar. His movements have been recovered on cctv footage.
Investigators suspect, Dr Umar wanted to carry out a blast in a crowded place and he was in search of the same. At around 3 pm, he took his car to the parking area near Red Fort. He sat inside his car for nearly three hours. At around 6.32 pm, he took out his car at a slow speed.
Investigators believe, the doctor wanted more vehicles near his car. At a red signal, he detonated his explosive. DNA sampling of his body parts has confirmed that it was Dr Umar who carried out the suicide bombing.
The role of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Falah university is now under close scrutiny of investigators. Doctors were radicalized to evade suspicion. The Al Falah university had become a base of radicalized doctors. Most of these doctors were dismissed for one reason or the other by other medical colleges.
Surprisingly, the plot to carry out serial blasts was hatched nearly two years ago, when the work of collecting explosives started. When police arrested the doctors, it was a case difficult to crack for the sleuths. Investigators had to toil hard to join one point with the other in this jigsaw puzzle. It took time.
For example, when Dr Adeel was nabbed, he took several days to spill out the beans about Dr Muzammil. The interrogation of Dr Muzammil took several days. This time lag allowed Dr Umar to escape police and carry out the blast near Red Fort. Dr Muzammil had revealed the car number of his girlfriend, but he did not mention that the car was in the name of Dr Umar.
Secrets are now tumbling out one after the other. Dr Muzammil, Dr Adeel and Dr Shaheen had created a group in Al Falah university. This group had collected Rs 26 lakh. The group handed over the money in cash to Dr Umar, who used this money to buy 2,600 kg NPK fertilizer from Nuh and Gurugram, in stages.
It was Dr Umar who purchased chemicals, remote timers and other devices, and handed them to Dr Muzammil. When police seized this huge quantity of explosives, it checked the cellphones of these doctors. It was only then police stumbled on the larger picture of the module planning to carry out serial blasts across India. We must appreciate the hard work put in by our investigators and security agencies in unravelling this big conspiracy.
A footnote: I think, we need a centralized database to prevent terror attacks. This database can be created through identification of each citizen through facial recognition, properly verified and kept confidential, so that it must not fall into the hands of mischievous elements.
This is a big task, but it is possible in this digital age. Artificial intelligence can be used to trace criminals immediately. If verified identification is carried out, the response time will be less.
China has integrated digital surveillance, identity verification system, real-time facial recognition and resident tracing mechanism. Naturally, there are few terrorist attacks and there is hardly any criminal network.
India is a democratic country. We do not have a dictatorship like China, but if we want to combat terrorism, digital verified identification is a must.
Get connected on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook