Police in J&K said two doctors from Kashmir who were arrested in Haryana’s Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur in recent days were allegedly part of an “interstate and transnational terror module”, which worked for the terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGH).
Police busted the terror module while investigating the appearance of posters supporting Jaish on the outskirts of Srinagar city, they said.
Police also said they seized around 3,000 kilograms of explosives, chemicals, reagents, inflammable material, electronic circuits and timers, as well as guns and ammunition, from the module. Among this was 350 kg of explosive material recovered from the Faridabad residence of one of the arrested doctors.
Terming it a “major counter terrorism success”, the police said in a release that the two arrested doctors were among seven people arrested in connection with the module.
Police said they “busted an inter-state and transnational terror module, linked with proscribed terrorist organisations, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind”. They added, “The operation has led to the arrest of key operatives and recovery of a massive cache of arms, ammunition and explosives, during coordinated searches in J&K and other states.”
Connecting the dots
According to sources, it started with the investigation into the posters, during which the name of a doctor in Faridabad, Dr Muzamil Ahmad Ganai, came up.
“During the examination of CCTV footage, we got some leads that led us to the doctor (Muzamil) at Faridabad,” a source said, adding, “Our team went to Faridabad to arrest him.”
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After he was arrested last week and questioned, the name of another doctor working in a private hospital in Saharanpur also came up, the source said.
“Another of our teams went to Saharanpur and arrested the doctor,” they said. He was identified as Dr Adeel Majeed Rather. “On the information provided by him, we recovered an AK rifle from a locker in the Government Medical College in Anantnag,” the source said.
Sources said that Rather, who is from Qazigund in south Kashmir, was working as a senior resident at GMC Anantnag last year and had left the job to work at a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh. They said the locker was in his possession a year ago.
During interrogation, Dr Muzamil Ahmad Ganai also allegedly confessed to having stored some explosives at his residence in Faridabad, police said. Ganai, a resident of Pulwama, was working in the Emergency Department of Al Falah Hospital in Faridabad.
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“He led us to his residence, where we recovered a huge quantity of chemicals that can be used to make explosives,” a police officer said. “We also recovered a rifle, some timers and communication gadgets from there.”
‘White collar terror ecosystem’
According to police, the investigation “revealed a white collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers operating from Pakistan and other countries,” police said. “The group has been using encrypted channels for indoctrination, coordination, fund movement and logistics. Funds were raised through professional and academic networks, under the guise of social/charitable [activity],” they said
During the investigation, searches were conducted at multiple locations in Srinagar, Anantnag, Ganderbal, and Shopian in Kashmir, as well as in Faridabad and Saharanpur.
In the searches, police said they recovered a Chinese Star pistol, a Beretta pistol, an AK-56 rifle, an AK Krinkov rifle, and 2,900 kilogrammes of IED-making material, including explosives, chemicals, reagents, inflammable material, electronic circuits, batteries, wires, remote control, timers, metal sheets, and so on.
