Shaheen Saeed, the co-accused in the Delhi blast case, was in charge of forming a team of "terror doctors", people in the know of the investigation told NDTV on Friday.
Saeed, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow who has now been arrested, formed teams of five doctors each and chose a team leader. She then only contacted the team leader to avoid suspicion, sources said.
The team leader then used to communicate with the other members. The limited interaction was to maintain the team's confidentiality and to avoid interrogation of the other teams in case a member was caught, sources added.
Investigating agencies are now working on finding out the number of teams that Saeed formed and the people she recruited.
Saeed, who worked as a doctor at the Faridabad-based Al-Falah University, a varsity that is now central to the Delhi car blast case, was also tasked with establishing the women's wing of the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in India, according to sources.
She was handed charge of the India branch of the JeM's women's wing, Jamaat ul-Mominaat, which is headed by JeM founder Masood Azhar's sister, Sadia Azhar, in Pakistan.
Saeed and her two colleagues - Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, and Adeel Ahmed Rather of Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag - have also been arrested for playing a key role in the deadly blast near Red Fort last Monday.
15 people were killed and many others injured when a Hyundai i20 car, driven by a suicide bomber, Umar un Nabi, exploded near the Red Fort.
Umar, a Kashmiri doctor, was also affiliated with the Al-Falah University.
Hours before the Red Fort blast, Jammu and Kashmir Police had announced that it had cracked an interstate and transnational "white-collar" terror module, linked to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group.
It said it also seized 2,900 kilograms of explosive substances, including ammonium nitrate, which was reportedly used in the Delhi blast.
