Exclusive | Delhi 10/11: How Doctors of Death Masked Their Anti-India Operations

New Delhi: They healed by day, but plotted mass casualty terror attacks by night. What began as a small circle of four promising young doctors has now been exposed as one of the most sophisticated radicalised terror modules operating in India. It was a network that turned clinics, classrooms and medical IDs into a cover for a bomb-building ecosystem stretching from Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi-NCR, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

This is the inside story of the “doctor module”, a major terror cell built almost entirely by medical professionals and how it morphed into a covert bomb factory trained by a Pakistan-based handler.

The Beginning Of Radicalisation

The investigation began unravelling when intelligence agencies picked up unusual chatter linking a group of medical students and young doctors to radical Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) ideologues. What they eventually found was a tightly knit cluster: Dr Muzammil Ganai — the ideological anchor, Dr Umar Nabi, Dr Muzaffar and Dr Adil Ahmad Rather.

All four were connected through their time in medical colleges and their professional ecosystem. Muzammil and Umar even lived close to each other, enabling frequent meetings that looked innocuous from the outside.

The turning point came when Shopian-based cleric Irfan Wagay, a Hafiz revered in the region, entered the picture. He had initially interacted with Dr Muzammil during a medical consultation. That meeting opened the door to a series of closed-circle radicalisation sessions involving Muzammil, Adil and Muzaffar.

Intelligence sources say Wagay’s influence was critical. “He was the ideological spine. He provided the space, narrative and religious justification for armed jihad,” a source said.

The Afghan Dream & Failed Turkey Mission

By late 2021, the group was no longer confined to sermons. Muzammil had committed himself to reviving Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind in India and was pushing the others towards actionable steps. In October 2022, the four embarked on a secret trip. They travelled to Turkey where they stayed for around 15 days and attempted to move towards Afghanistan to formally join Ansar.

However, their plan collapsed at the Turkey-Afghan gateway, where they were unable to cross into Afghanistan due to security restrictions. They returned to India, but were more determined to operationalise jihad inside the country.

Online Bomb-Making Class

It was during this transition phase that they came under the radar of Abu Ukasa, a senior Jaish-linked figure stationed near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Ukasa’s pitch was simple: “You don’t need to come to Afghanistan. I will train you from here.” He began sending instructions on making IEDs, procurement lists, storage and concealment strategies, and videos and encrypted PDFs detailing explosive combinations.

Muzammil became the primary contact and the others followed the instructions.

Intelligence officers told Republic that this was the first educated module in India to receive full-spectrum bomb-making training remotely.

The White Coat Cover

By early 2023, the doctors had already started building a physical network. They created hubs across Faridabad, Saharanpur and outskirts of Delhi-NCR.

Their procurement method was chillingly simple. They purchased ammonium nitrate, potash and other precursor chemicals in small, unnoticeable batches from shops in Sonepat, Gurgaon and neighbouring areas.

Some shopkeepers questioned them, but the group just flashed their medical identity cards to escape pointed questions.

Investigators admitted that doctors didn’t raise suspicion. “They used that privilege to the fullest,” they said.

A vehicle linked to the module was eventually seized, containing explosive residues and materials.

The Nuh Connection

One of the biggest red flags emerged with Umar Nabi’s unusual travels.

On October 18, Umar travelled quietly from Delhi to Srinagar. He returned on October 24, but left his two mobile phones behind in Kashmir, a classic counter-surveillance tactic.

On October 30, he suddenly disappeared from the Al Falah campus and drove towards Nuh, using the same i20 car the module frequently used.

CCTV footage placed him crossing Firozpur Jhirka toll plaza at 1.36 am, returning to Delhi just hours later.

Sources said Nuh was a meeting point and possibly a storage location and his phone dump indicated he didn’t want his movements traced.

Faridabad-Saharanpur Network

What the agencies ultimately uncovered was a chilling bomb-making ecosystem run by doctors, communication linked directly to Pakistan-based handler Ukasa, explosive materials scattered across Delhi-NCR, and a plan to target major public spaces, including malls, hospitals and financial hubs.

The module’s operation was sophisticated enough that even localised seizures, like the Faridabad cache, were only fragments of a bigger blueprint.

How The Doctor Module Collapsed

It took months of surveillance, intercepted digital traffic and intelligence from multiple states before the network cracked open. After Dr Adil was arrested from Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir, the role of others doctors came under the radar.

What shocked investigators most was not just the scale of the conspiracy, but the profile of the conspirators. They were all educated, trained in saving lives and trusted by local communities. Yet they channelled their skills, discipline and access into planning a terror plot in India.

This is the first case in recent years where the core ideological operatives were medical professionals and radicalisation happened through a cleric-doctor chain. Bomb-making training was delivered entirely online as a fully self-sustaining network was created inside the national capital region. Officials believe this bust prevented multiple high-casualty attacks.

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