On the evening of November 10, 2025, a white Hyundai i20 parked near Delhi’s Red Fort erupted in flames, shattering the calm of a historic neighborhood and claiming at least a dozen lives. What initially appeared to be an isolated explosion quickly spiraled into one of the most complex terror investigations in recent years.

As evidence emerged, the narrative shifted from a single act of violence to a chilling revelation - a terror network of educated professionals, where doctors, academics, and clerics operated under the radar in the heart of India’s capital.

The Faridabad Trail: From Hospital Wards to Bomb Factories

Barely 45 kilometres from Delhi, in Faridabad, investigators uncovered nearly 2,900 kilograms of explosives hidden inside rented apartments. These spaces were linked to individuals who, on paper, looked nothing like conventional extremists, qualified doctors, and university employees.

One of them, Dr. Muzammil Ganaie, a physician from Pulwama employed at Al Falah University’s medical facility, allegedly used his professional cover to coordinate the movement and concealment of explosive materials. Another, Dr. Shaheen Sayeed from Lucknow, was found to be connected to the same network.

The size of the cache and the sophistication of the logistics pointed to something far bigger, possibly multiple coordinated attacks across the Delhi–NCR region. But when the Faridabad module was compromised, the entire operation began to unravel.

The Trigger: Dr. Umar Mohammad Nabi’s Fatal Decision

Central to the Delhi explosion is the name Dr. Umar Mohammad Nabi, a medical practitioner from Pulwama who had allegedly fallen under the influence of JeM-linked radical networks.

According to investigators, Dr. Umar was operating the Hyundai i20 that exploded near the Red Fort. When he learned that his close associates in the Faridabad module - including Dr. Muzammil Ganaie - had been arrested and their explosive stockpile seized, he panicked.

Believing that the network had been compromised and that capture was imminent, Umar allegedly triggered the explosive device inside his car, causing the blast that shocked Delhi and exposed the existence of a “white-collar terror cell” unlike any seen before.

The incident was not a planned suicide mission in the traditional sense, but a desperate act of containment, a tragic, violent attempt to destroy evidence and avoid arrest.

The ‘White-Collar Module’: When Professionals Turn Radical

The arrests in Faridabad and Delhi have unearthed what investigators are calling a “white-collar terror module” - an underground network made up not of foot soldiers, but doctors, clerics, and businessmen.

These individuals operated quietly, leveraging their education and social respectability to conceal radical intent. The module allegedly served as a new recruitment and logistics wing for Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), tasked with creating homegrown terror cells using India’s own professional class.

Such individuals, fluent in English, working in hospitals and universities, could move resources, spread ideology, and evade suspicion far more effectively than traditional operatives. This strategy marks a calculated shift in JeM’s operational doctrine, designed to infiltrate spaces considered beyond the reach of radicalisation.

The Doctor and the Maulana: A Fusion of Intellect and Indoctrination

At the ideological core of this network stood a cleric: Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a Kashmiri imam who also worked as a paramedic. He is believed to have played a central role in radicalising young doctors and students, blending religious rhetoric with narratives of professional “duty” and moral obligation.

Through sessions disguised as spiritual discussions and community mentorship, Irfan allegedly cultivated a circle of educated recruits, convincing them that their scientific skills and social standing could serve a “higher cause.” Among his most notable recruits, Dr. Shaheen Sayeed was allegedly assigned by JeM to create a “women’s wing” of this white-collar network, a covert platform for recruiting educated women into extremist activities and logistical roles.

This convergence of religious indoctrination and academic respectability makes the module uniquely dangerous, a blend of intellect, ideology, and invisibility.

Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Invisible Hand

Investigators believe the module operated under direct or indirect supervision of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Pakistan-based outfit responsible for numerous attacks in India, including Pulwama (2019). JeM’s involvement in the Delhi blast underscores a new strategy: embedding ideology within education, transforming doctors and scholars into ideologically motivated insiders capable of conducting operations without external aid.

Dr. Umar Mohammad Nabi’s decision to detonate the car bomb near Red Fort is seen as both a tactical failure and a symbolic act, a sign that Jaish’s white-collar cell was collapsing under pressure after the Faridabad bust.

The Red Fort Message: Symbolism and Strategy

The Red Fort was no random target. As the site of the Prime Minister’s Independence Day address and a symbol of India’s sovereignty, it represents national unity and resilience.

A blast near its walls, even if smaller in scale, was a message from Jaish-e-Mohammed: “Our reach extends to your symbols.” Such attacks are not just about casualties but about psychology - testing state preparedness, triggering public fear, and claiming ideological space in the heart of the capital.

Radicalisation in the Age of Respectability

The Delhi-Faridabad network exposes a reality India can no longer ignore: terrorism has evolved beyond socio-economic boundaries. These were not impoverished, uneducated youth. They were doctors, clerics, university-affiliated professionals, individuals society trusts to heal, teach, and lead. Their transformation from healers to executioners signifies a collapse of moral immunity within sections of educated society. Radicalisation today is less about poverty and more about narrative engineering, a systematic reprogramming of purpose and identity, achieved through ideology cloaked in intellect.

What Lies Ahead

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) continues to untangle the threads of this network. Key questions remain: How deep do such “white-collar” modules run across professional institutions?

What mechanisms allowed nearly three tonnes of explosives to be stockpiled without detection?

How are extremist ideologies entering professional spaces under the guise of faith, culture, or mentorship?

These are not just questions for security agencies, but for universities, hospitals, and professional councils - institutions that must now acknowledge that radicalisation can thrive in fluorescent-lit classrooms, not just shadowy madrassas.

The Mind as the New Battlefield

The Delhi blast of 2025 is more than an act of terror - it is a wake-up call. It warns that the next wave of extremism may not come from across borders, but from within from educated individuals whose intellect has been hijacked by ideology. When doctors like Dr. Umar Mohammad Nabi weaponise their knowledge, when clerics like Maulvi Irfan Ahmad exploit faith to radicalise professionals, and when terror outfits like JeM use education as camouflage, the battlefield shifts from the street to the seminar hall. India’s challenge now is not just to defend its borders, but to defend its minds.

The Unseen War Within: Questions We Must Confront

As investigators trace the wires of this terror network from Faridabad’s clinics to the charred frame of a Delhi street, a darker truth emerges: the enemy no longer always wears a foreign face.

The radicalisation we now see is not born of deprivation, but of distortion, a twisting of faith, intellect, and identity.

It raises a question we can no longer avoid: If educated minds such as doctors, scholars, and professionals can be seduced by extremism, what does that say about the cracks within our own social fabric? We can, and must, hold Pakistan accountable for exporting terror ideology, but the harder battle lies within, in classrooms, religious spaces, and online ecosystems where words have become weapons.

How can this radicalisation be stopped?
How do we prevent the educated from mistaking ideology for identity, or conviction for conscience?
How can we limit the reach of clerics and Maulanas who twist faith into fuel for fanaticism without alienating the communities of peace they claim to represent?

These are questions that cannot be answered by law enforcement alone. They demand a collective moral vigilance from families, educators, religious institutions, and digital platforms alike.

Because the danger no longer arrives in the form of infiltrators crossing borders, it grows quietly in the minds of our own, disguised as piety, purpose, or belonging.

So we must ask ourselves:

How safe are our young minds?
How resilient are our cities against invisible persuasion?

And most importantly - How prepared are we, as a society, to confront the enemy within before it claims another Red Fort, another city, another generation?