Dr Shaheen Saeed Was 'Madam Surgeon', 'Medicine' Code Word For Explosives

Investigators probing last week's explosion near Delhi's Red Fort have uncovered a network in which key suspect Dr Shaheen was addressed as "Madam Surgeon" by her associates. 

WhatsApp messages retrieved from her phone have given agencies crucial insight into the group's internal communication, including coded terms and frequent contacts with two unidentified women saved in her phone as Madam X and Madam Z.

The messages show that Dr Shaheen regularly received calls and texts from these two numbers, neither of which carried a display photo. Investigators believe the word "medicine," used repeatedly in the chats, referred to explosives. In one message, Madam X wrote that "medicine should not be lacking for the operation." 

Agencies suspect "operation" was being used as a codeword for a terror attack. Another message from Madam Z said, "Madam Surgeon, please pay more attention to Operation Hamdard."

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Operation Hamdard was used to recruit female terrorists for the army.

Notably, Saeed was identified as the head of the women's wing of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group. Intelligence suggests the JeM - responsible for the 2001 attack on Parliament and the 2019 Pulwama assault - was running this particular cell.

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A resident of Lucknow's Lal Bagh, Saeed was arrested last week, hours before a panicked fourth member of the terror cell - DNA tests identified him as Umar Mohammad - drove and detonated a Hyundai i20 stuffed with explosives near the Red Fort, killing himself and 13 others.

Intelligence sources said Saeed earlier served as Head of the Pharmacology Department at the Kanpur Medical College. She was later transferred to the Kannauj Medical College.