- J&K Police busted a terror module linked to banned terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind
- 2,900kg of bomb-making materials and various guns were seized in raids across J&K and in Haryana's Faridabad
- Seven people, including medical professionals, were arrested in coordinated raids across multiple locations
Jammu and Kashmir Police have cracked an inter-state and transnational terror module, linked to at least two banned terrorist organisations – the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist terror group that is active across J&K.
This includes the recivery of 2,900kg of bomb-making material, including 350kg of an explosive agent – ammonium nitrate – and timers, as well as assault rifles, handguns and ammunition, from the residence of a Mujammil Shakeel, a medical professional at the Al-Falah Hospital in Haryana's Faridabad, near Delhi, and in the locker of an Adil Ahmad Rather, a doctor at Anantnag's Government Medical College.
Police and intelligence agencies raided locations across J&K (Srinagar, Anantnag, Ganderbal, and Shopian) as well as Faridabad over the past few days to uncover a worrying white-collar, terrorist ecosystem operating involving radicalised professionals, many of whom are doctors.
These professionals 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.
Adil Rather, for example, was arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur after CCTV footage showed him putting up those posters – praising the Jaish-e-Mohammed group – in Srinagar.
READ | 350 kg Explosives, Rifle Found Near Delhi, 2 J&K Doctors Arrested
Apart from Rather and Shakeel, five other individuals have been arrested, intel sources told NDTV.
They have been identified as Arif Nisar Dar, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar from Srinagar, Molvi Irfan Ahmad from Shopian, and Zameer Ahmad Ahanger from Ganderbal.
The investigation now also includes a woman doctor from the Al-Falah hospital, in whose car one of the assault rifles was found. Shakeel, meanwhile, is from Pulwama and Rather is from Kulgam.
READ | Twist In 350 kg Explosives Haul Near Delhi: Woman Doctor In Focus
The rise of white-collar terrorism networks is a particular challenge for Indian security agencies, who are now also involved in tracking flow of funds to and from the terrorists and their backers.
Apart from the weapons and explosive agents, authorities have also recovered incriminating documents, including booklets on making IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.
The list of guns recovered is long and worrying, and range from an Italian-made Beretta pistol to assault rifles like the Russian-made Krinkov, which some reports indicate is a deadly variation of the Ak-74 that combines the firepower of the latter with compactness of a submachine gun.
The assault rifle found in a hospital locker assigned to Adil Rather in J&K's Anantnag.
Large stores of ammunition was also recovered, sources said.
In addition, nearly 3,000kg of IED-making material - explosives, chemicals, inflammable material, electronic circuits, batteries, wires, remote control, timers, etc. - were recovered.
More than a third of that haul was from Faridabad – the 350kg of ammonium nitrate that authorities first feared could be RDX, a powerful-military grade explosive.
Lashkar, Jaish terror groups and Pak's new plan
Last week intel reports accessed by NDTV revealed an alarming escalation in Pak-backed terror activity in J&K, six months after Operation Sindoor, India's military response to the Pahalgam attack.
READ | 6 Months After Op Sindoor, Lashkar And Jaish's New J&K Attack Plan
The report said groups like the Jaish are mobilising for a new wave of coordinated strikes on India, including expanded infiltration, reconnaissance, and cross-border logistics.
READ | Pak's ISI Forms Deadly Lashkar-ISIS Alliance In Balochistan, Says Documents
Pakistna's continued support of cross-border terrorism had also been emphasised last week in another high-level intel report, with the help this time expanding to a covert alliance between the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Islamic State Khorasan Province engineered by Pak's Inter-Services Intelligence.
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