First lead to terror plot came from Jaish posters in Kashmir

NEW DELHI: The first lead in J&K police's investigation into Jaish-e-Muhammed's multi-state terror network involving Kashmiri doctors - now busted with nine arrests and a massive haul of over 2,900 kgs of explosives, bomb-making material and two AK-series weapons so far - was as innocuous as a set of Jaish posters that had come up secretly in Nowgam, Srinagar in mid-October. The Jaish posters threatening attacks on security forces - common until 2019 but a rare occurrence now - fuelled the curiosity of Srinagar SSP G V Sundeep Chakravarthy, who had also led the J&K police component in Operation Mahadev that neutralised the three Pahalgam attackers. He insisted on finding out who put up the posters; and CCTV camera footage nailed three overground workers with a history of stone-pelting.

They were arrested and their interrogation led the police to a cleric in Shopian, Maulvi Irfan Ahmad. Irfan's questioning would, over the next 2-3 weeks, unveil a sinister Jaish plot - with links across J&K, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh - leading to a string of arrests. Those arrested so far include Kashmiri doctors working at Faridabad's Al-Falah University, Muzammil Ganaie hailing from Pulwama; Adeel Ahmad Rather, originally from Qazigund but picked up from Saharanpur; and Dr Shaheen Sayeed hailing from Lucknow and Muzammil's purported girlfriend.

A fourth doctor, Dr Umar, who hails from Pulwama, is however absconding. Also in custody are the three overground workers behind the Nowgam posters; Hafiz Mohd Ishtiyak, a Mewat cleric who arranged the logistics in Faridabad; Maulvi Irfan and his aide from Ganderbal Zameer Ahmad Ahanger alias Mutlasha who led the J&K police to Muzammil. Though Maulvi was not talking initially, a mobile device picked up from his house showed a Telegram channel operated by Pakistan-based Jaish terrorist Umar bin Khattab, confirming that he was in touch with Irfan. One of Irfan's terror recruits, Mutlasha, also came under the scanner for being part of another pan-India terror chat group by the name Farzandan e Darul Uloom Deoband. Irfan eventually said he had seen an AK-47 in the house of a doctor he had radicalised. Mutlasha confirmed the identity of the doctor as Dr Muzammil Ganaie. Muzammil was traced to Al-Falah University in Faridabad, Haryana, where he was working with Dr Adeel and Dr Umar.

Though interrogation is underway to establish how these explosives were to be used, investigators suspect a conspiracy to carry out terror attacks in the hinterland, with Delhi an obvious target given its proximity to Faridabad. "Idea was to use the cover of being medical professionals to escape suspicion. Given the massive quantity of explosives and other bomb-making material, it seems they were collected over two years," an officer connected with the investigation told TOI.