The car that exploded near Delhi’s Red Fort on November 10 wasn’t driven by an illiterate foot soldier from a Pakistani training camp. Behind the wheel sat Dr Umar Mohammad, a medical professional who had received education in India before turning his expertise toward mass murder. The blast, which killed 13 people and injured over 20, came merely hours after investigators had unearthed a chilling reality: India faces a sophisticated white-collar jihadi network that operates through socio-educational fronts, professional networks, and charitable trusts.

This is not sporadic violence. This is systemic infiltration.

The arrests of multiple doctors across Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh reveal an ecosystem that has been festering beneath the surface of India’s professional class. Dr Muzammil Shakeel, an assistant professor at Al-Falah University in Faridabad, had been storing 2,900 kilograms of explosives in two rented rooms for over three years. Dr. Adeel Ahmad Rather, working at the same institution, had stashed an AK-47 rifle in his locker at Government Medical College in Srinagar. Dr. Shaheen Shahid from Lucknow was tasked with establishing the Indian wing of Jaish-e-Mohammed’s women’s brigade, Jamaat-ul-Mominaat. During interrogation, she has revealed the module was hoarding explosives for two years to execute blasts across the length and breadth of India – the same country whose grains such jihadis have consumed since birth

These were not struggling youth from conflict zones. These were educated professionals who had benefited from India’s medical education system. They repaid this debt by plotting to kill innocent Indians.

The Al-Falah University campus in Faridabad has emerged as ground zero for this terror module. Room 13 in Building 17, occupied by Dr. Muzammil, served as the planning hub where logistics and transport routes for ammonium nitrate were coordinated. The Hyundai i20 used in the Red Fort attack had been parked on campus for nearly 20 days. In fact, right before the blast, the same car was parked at Chandani Chowk’s ‘Sunehri Masjid’ for over two hours.

Established in 2014, Al-Falah University operates with the stated mission to provide affordable medical education to “minorities" and rural students. Little did anyone guess that an institution with such a noble mission would become what investigators now call the “Faridabad node" of a wider terror network.

The question that should haunt every Indian is simple: How many more such nodes exist?

The answer lies in understanding the organisational infrastructure that enables this radicalisation. These terror........

© News18