2,900 kg Explosives Found At 2 Houses Of J&K Doctor In Faridabad

Just a day after 350 kg of explosives and several arms and ammunition were seized from a rented accommodation, 2,563 kg of suspected explosives were recovered from another house in Haryana's Faridabad. Both the houses were rented by Dr Mujammil Shakeel, a doctor from Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama who has emerged as a key link in a "white-collar" terrorist ecosystem involving radicalised professionals.

As per the initial police investigation, the recovered substance is likely ammonium nitrate.

The Faridabad and Jammu and Kashmir Police have been conducting raids at this house since this morning.

Shakeel, who works at Al Falah Medical College and Hospital in Faridabad, was arrested in the case recently. Al Falah University in Faridabad's Dhoj, around 45 km from Delhi, is privately run and recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

On Sunday, the officials recovered 350 kgs of explosives, 20 timers, assault rifles, handguns and ammunition from a room that Shakeel had been renting in Dhoj for the past three and a half years. He was arrested by the police 10 days ago after evidence linking him to Jaish-e-Mohammed emerged.

A pistol with eight live rounds, two empty cartridges and two additional magazines were recovered in the raid. Eight big suitcases, four small suitcases and a bucket were also recovered from the accused's room.

The second house is located in Fatehpur Taga village, 4 kilometres from Dhoj. The house is owned by a maulana (a Muslim scholar), who was taken into custody by the police earlier in the day.

A white-collar, terrorist ecosystem involving radicalised professionals, many of whom are doctors, was uncovered by police and intelligence agencies during raids at locations across J&K (Srinagar, Anantnag, Ganderbal and Shopian) and Faridabad over the past few days. The joint operation by the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir Police, which has been ongoing over the last 15 days, resulted in the recovery of more than 2,900 kg of bomb-making material.

Earlier, Dr Adil Ahmad Rather, a Kashmiri doctor from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur, was detained for allegedly putting up posters supporting the proscribed terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed in Srinagar.

After Shakeel's questioning, the Faridabad police also recovered a Swift car that belongs to a woman doctor working at the Al-Falah Hospital. An assault rifle and a pistol were recovered from the car. The woman doctor has been arrested now.

The professionals who are part of the terror module are operated by handlers based in Pakistan and other countries, and are involved in a range of terrorist activities, including pasting posters in support of terrorist groups.

Besides Shakeel and Rather, five other people - Arif Nisar Dar, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar from Srinagar, Molvi Irfan Ahmad from Shopian, and Zameer Ahmad Ahanger from Ganderbal - have also been arrested, intel sources told NDTV.

Apart from the weapons and explosive agents, authorities have also recovered incriminating documents, including booklets on making IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.