The unearthing of the sinister white collar terror plot behind the Delhi car blast, in which eight people were killed and many others injured, proves the involvement of three Kashmiri doctors, two of them belonging to the same village in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.
The involvement of professionally trained doctors has added an ugly dimension to terrorism in the union territory. Dr Mohd Umar, who reportedly drove the i20 car and died in the explosion near the Red Fort in Delhi on Monday, belonged to Koil village of Pulwama.
The police have arrested his two brothers and mother for questioning, while his father is reportedly mentally challenged. Umar did his MBBS from the prestigious Government Medical College (GMC) in Srinagar. He secured a seat in the prestigious medical college on merit.
Neighbours said that although he was a hard and studious child, Umar had a deep, fundamental Islamist influence right from his childhood. Another doctor arrested in the terror-busting operation is Dr Muzammil, who also belongs to Koil village of Pulwama.
The third Kashmiri doctor involved in this plot and arrested is Dr Adil Ahmad Rather, who was arrested for putting up posters supporting terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Srinagar in October this year. An AK-47 assault rifle was recovered from Dr Adil’s locker in Government Medical College, Anantnag, where Adil served till October 2024.
It was Adil’s sustained interrogation that led to the unearthing of the entire terror module, highly placed sources told IANS here. On his disclosure, a team of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Haryana Police found 290 kg of ammonium nitrate, assault rifles, timer devices and ammunition in Faridabad, Haryana.
Dr Adil Rather belongs to the Qazigund area of Kulgam district in the Valley. Following his disclosure, police also arrested another Dr Shaheen Shahid from Lucknow and recovered an assault rifle from her car. Even after the arrest of Adil and Muzammil, Dr Mohd Umar was absconding.
It is believed that the arrest of his accomplices completely unnerved Umar, and he carried out the Red Fort blast in panic. More arrests are being made across the Valley and outside as the sinister plot continues to come to the surface.
How many local residents of places outside Jammu and Kashmir were associated with this dangerous plot to strike at the country’s heart will be known in the days to come. Intelligence sources suggest that the plot was hatched to avenge the death of the JeM terror outfit founder, Azhar Masood’s family, in Operation Sindoor.
Are there more sleeper cells of terror outfits still lying low after the unearthing of the terror module? Were large-scale serial blasts planned by the module? Answers to these questions need answers, and it is expected that the security agencies will get answers to all these questions sooner rather than later.