New Delhi/Srinagar, Feb 15: A ‘white-collar’ terror module busted by Jammu and Kashmir Police has revealed that a group of radicalised doctors and associates formed a new outfit, “Ansar Interim,” to plan attacks in J&K and across India’s hinterland, officials said, adding that the case is now being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Investigators said the accused — doctors Muzamil Gannie, Umer-un-Nabi (deceased), Adeel Rather and his absconding brother Muzzafar Rather, along with Maulvi Irfan, Qari Aamir and Tufail Gazi — met at Eidgah in Srinagar in April 2022 and constituted the group. Adeel was named ‘Ameer’, Irfan deputy chief and Gannie treasurer, while Umer acted as coordinator handling finances and procurement.
Umer, a 28-year-old doctor from Pulwama, is suspected to have masterminded a Vehicle-Borne IED plot targeting crowded or religious sites outside J&K. Officials said he had earlier tried to join militant ranks in 2016 and 2018 and later learned rudimentary bomb-making online, preparing Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) explosive material with accomplices in Faridabad.
The group sourced fertiliser from Haryana and recruited a South Kashmir youth, Danish alias Jasir, for a possible suicide mission, though he withdrew. The alleged Red Fort car blast on November 10 that killed over a dozen people is believed to have occurred prematurely after police arrested Gannie and seized explosives, disrupting the plan.
The inter-state network unravelled after JeM posters surfaced in Srinagar’s Nowgam on October 19. Arrests of three locals led police to Maulvi Irfan, a former paramedic-turned-imam accused of radicalising the doctors and supplying material, officials said. (Agencies)
