Red Fort blast: Dr Shaheen assembled 'terror doctor' units; communicated with team leader to avoid suspicion, report says

Dr Shaheen Saeed

Authorities investigating the deadly blast near Delhi’s Red Fort are now examining the role of co-accused Shaheen Saeed, who officials say was responsible for assembling covert “terror doctor” units, NDTV reported.

According to investigators who spoke to NDTV, Saeed, who is a doctor from Lucknow and is now under arrest, “formed teams of five doctors each and chose a team leader".

She reportedly maintained strict communication discipline. Officials said that Saeed then only contacted the team leader to avoid suspicion. The report said that officials have revealed that the leader was responsible for relaying instructions to the rest of the group. The strategy, officials believe, was designed “to avoid interrogation of the other teams in case a member was caught".

Agencies are now trying to trace how many such teams were formed and identify the individuals recruited into the network.

Saeed previously worked at Al-Falah University in Faridabad, which has emerged as a crucial link in the case. Investigators say she was also instructed to establish the India chapter of the women’s wing of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Jamaat ul-Mominaat, a unit overseen in Pakistan by Masood Azhar’s sister, Sadia Azhar.

She is among three arrested individuals accused of playing a central role in last Monday’s explosion near the Red Fort. The others include Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie from Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama and Adeel Ahmed Rather from Anantnag.

The attack killed 13 people and injured several others. The blast was triggered by a Hyundai i20 driven by suicide bomber Umar un Nabi, who is a Kashmiri doctor also reportedly affiliated with Al-Falah University.

Dr Saeed’s arrest came after investigators recovered 2,900 kilograms of explosive materials from two rented rooms in Faridabad, Haryana, belonging to Dr Muzammil Ganaie, at Al-Falah University, where she also taught.

According to the officials, Dr Ganaie, also known by the alias Musaib, was part of a “white-collar terror module” tied to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.