2 J&K doctors among 5 held

Investigators detained at least five more people, including two doctors and two staffers of Al-Falah University in Faridabad, and launched a hunt for another doctor who visited Turkey with two other suspects, as part their nationwide investigation into an alleged terror module behind Nov 10 deadly blast near Red Fort in Delhi.
The latest detentions include two doctors in Uttar Pradesh – cardiologist Dr Mohammad Arif Mir, 32, from Kanpur, and Dr Farukh, a gynecologist from GS Medical College, Hapur – both originally from Jammu and Kashmir. The state’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) confirmed that both were picked up on suspicion of links to Dr Shaheen Shahid, the Lucknow-origin doctor arrested from Faridabad earlier this month. According to ATS officials, Dr Mir was detained late Wednesday night from the Cardiology Institute of GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, while Dr Farukh was picked up on Thursday afternoon from his hostel in Hapur. They were later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and shifted to Delhi for interrogation.
“We only came to know that the ATS had taken Dr Arif for questioning. Beyond that, we have no information,” said Dr Umeshwar Pandey, head of the cardiology department in Kanpur. GS Medical College director Dr Manoj Shishodia confirmed that a police team had arrived to question Dr Farukh before taking him along.
Preliminary investigations suggest that Dr Mir, who hails from Anantnag, was likely connected to Dr Umar Un Nabi, the man who drove the car that exploded near the Red Fort, through a medical college in Kashmir. Officials said Dr Mir and Dr Shahid had been in frequent contact for several months, though investigators are still trying to determine the nature of their contact.
Dr Farukh, meanwhile, studied with Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie, who was arrested from Faridabad as part of a raid that found explosive material stored in a room he had rented. A police team later searched Dr Mir’s rented flat in Kanpur and seized his laptop and mobile phone for forensic analysis. His landlord, Kanhaiya Lal, told investigators that Mir had moved in barely a month ago and “kept entirely to himself.” Investigators said the connection threads back to a common network of Kashmir-origin medical professionals allegedly drawn into the fold of a covert “white-collar” terror module using academic and institutional covers.
Among the five detained, the third – Mohammad Jamil alias Zameel, a staffer at Al-Falah University – was picked up by NIA for allegedly facilitating the recruitment of Kashmiri doctors into the university. Investigators said Jamil handled parts of the institution’s hiring process and was responsible for forwarding verification and approval files for new faculty appointments.