By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

When Medical Doctors become terrorists

The Al-Falah University in India's Haryana state has been swept up in a widening terror investigation that is focusing on doctors who taught at the university.

Two other doctors are suspected of being in the same “white-collar” terror cell with links to militant groups in Kashmir, a disputed area between India and Pakistan. The cell’s exact links to Pakistan, if any, are unclear.

Over half a dozen people, including the doctors, have been detained or arrested so far. The blast shattered a years-long peace in the capital, which had not encountered a major terror-linked bombing since 2011.

Pakistani police officers on a road cordoned off after a blast outside a court building in Islamabad on Nov 11.

About 30 to 40 ambulances were near the site of the blast, and the entire area was cordoned off after the fire was put out, a Reuters reporter said.

The US Embassy in Delhi issued a security alert to its citizens, asking them to avoid crowds and areas surrounding the Red Fort, and to stay alert in places frequented by tourists.

But the Nov 10 attack, and a blast a day later in Pakistan, have heightened fears of a larger regional conflagration. Tensions remain high between India and Pakistan after a four-day conflict in May triggered by a terror attack in Kashmir that killed 26 people.

The car blast, which occurred in a busy street near the metro station in front of the Mughal-era Red Fort, was officially declared a terror attack after a Cabinet Committee on Security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 12.

 

Two doctors arrested

Hours before the blast in Delhi, police in the Jammu and Kashmir federal territory said they had arrested seven men, including two doctors, in connection with a separate anti-terror probe and searches in Kashmir, and in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that border Delhi.

A Mumbai police sniffer dog sniffs bags during a patrol after heightened security following an explosion in New Delhi, at a railway station in Mumbai, India, November 11, 2025

Police found two pistols, two assault rifles, and 2,900 kg of bomb-making material during the raids, a Kashmir police statement said.

"The investigation has revealed a white collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries," it said, adding that the men were linked to Pakistan-based militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.

The attack has triggered concerns over the radicalization of professionals and underlined the continuing challenges in the fight against terrorism in the South Asian country.

Above, emergency workers respond to the scene of the blast near the Red Fort in New Delhi, India, on Nov 10.

Emergency personnel work at the site of an explosion in the old quarters of Delhi, India, on Nov 10.

 

The investigations so far

Just outside the university gate, small eateries and tea stalls stood empty on Nov 12 amid heightened media and police presence. “The students are not coming now,” said one tea stall owner.

According to its website, the university has 200 seats for its MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) course. It also runs Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery programs and operates a 378-bed super-specialized hospital on campus for locals, students, and staff.

Local police confirmed that faculty members are being questioned. The university is near the city of Faridabad, over an hour’s drive south of New Delhi.

Investigators said they had seized 390kg of a substance suspected to be ammonium nitrate, a key component in explosives, packed tightly in eight big suitcases and four small suitcases, from a rented room linked to Dr Muzammil Ganaie, who is from Kashmir. Detonators, a rifle, and a pistol were also found.

In all, police have so far recovered 2,900kg of explosive materials and assorted weapons from different spots related to the suspected terror cell.

Another faculty member, Dr Shaheen Shaheed, who is from Uttar Pradesh state, was also detained.

A third doctor, Dr Umar Nabi, also from Kashmir, is suspected to be the driver of the car. According to Indian media reports, he had been on the run as police closed in on the terror cell.

The media, quoting police sources, detailed that Dr Nabi has been identified through DNA from his family as the driver of the car.

The Nov 10 attack in Delhi occurred on a busy street near the metro station in front of the Mughal-era Red Fort.

Police had uncovered the terror cell on Oct 19, while investigating posters of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistan-based group founded by wanted terrorist Masood Azhar, that had popped up in different parts of Kashmir, including the capital city Srinagar.

Kashmir has long been a center of terror activity and a trigger for three wars between India and Pakistan.

India has frequently accused Pakistan of supporting terror activities against it in Kashmir, which is claimed in full by both countries. Pakistan has denied the charges.

This initial probe had led Jammu and Kashmir police to what they described as a “white-collar ecosystem involving radicalized professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers operating from Pakistan and other countries”.

At least half a dozen doctors were traced to the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, leading to the discovery of explosive materials, weapons, and ammunition. Police believe these materials were being amassed to carry out terror attacks.

The investigation has expanded after the Delhi blast, involving police from Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, and Delhi, as well as the National Investigation Agency, India’s main counter-terrorism agency.

A police official reported that different agencies were collaborating and conducting more raids.

A resolution passed at the Nov 12 Cabinet meeting “directs that the investigation into the incident be pursued with the utmost urgency and professionalism so that the perpetrators, their collaborators and their sponsors are identified and brought to justice without delay”.

 

Medicine of terror

The Jammu and Kashmir police said the terror cell had been “using encrypted channels for indoctrination, coordination, fund movement and logistics”.

It further noted that “funds were raised through professional and academic networks under the guise of social/charitable causes”.

The case has triggered much debate in India over how so many doctors, described by their respective families as hard-working and studious, became involved in a terror network.

Ms Muzamila, the sister-in-law of Dr Nabi, in an interview with news agency ANI, said the family could not believe accusations that he was involved in a terror plot.

“He was a reserved kind of person right from childhood. We faced a lot of struggles to get him educated,” she said.

Families of others accused of being in the terror cell have also expressed disbelief over the charges.

Al Falah University has expressed shock at the suspected terror link to its campus.

“We have also learnt that two of our doctors have been detained by the investigating agencies. We wish to make it clear that the university has no connection with the said persons apart from them working in their official capacities with the university,” Vice-Chancellor Bhupinder Kaur Anand said in a statement on Nov. 12.

Police had uncovered the terror cell on Oct 19, while investigating posters of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) – a Pakistan-based group founded by wanted terrorist Masood Azhar, that had popped up in different parts of Kashmir, including the capital city Srinagar.

Kashmir has long been a center of terror activity and a trigger for three wars between India and Pakistan.

India has frequently accused Pakistan of supporting terror activities against it in Kashmir, which is claimed in full by both countries. Pakistan has denied the charges.

This initial probe had led Jammu and Kashmir police to what they described as a “white-collar ecosystem involving radicalized professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers operating from Pakistan and other countries”.

At least half a dozen doctors were traced to the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, leading to the discovery of explosive materials, weapons, and ammunition. Police believe these materials were being amassed to carry out terror attacks.

The investigation has expanded after the Delhi blast, involving police from Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, and Delhi, as well as the National Investigation Agency, India’s main counter-terrorism agency.

 

 

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