Delhi car blast: The NIA investigating the Red Fort blast case took the main accused, Dr Shaheen Shahid, to Al-Falah University on Friday. Officials accompanied the ‘Madam Surgeon’ for more than five hours, gathering details related to the blast plan and the explosives used. The mystery of Room 22 came to light after the 43-year-old revealed key events connected to its role in planning and executing the attack that killed more than 15 people on November 10.
Mystery of Room 22 in Al-Falah
NIA officers took her to Room No. 22 on the Al Falah campus to collect evidence and recreate scenes that happened before, where several meetings between members of the module are suspected to have taken place before the Red Fort suicide bombing. A day earlier, the agency had also taken Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie — an Al-Falah University professor accused of preparing explosives intended to be used as IEDs in cars — to the campus.
Delhi car blast: News reports suggest that apart from the meetings, the blast planning was also held here. The agency is collecting more evidence on the people who have attended the meeting along with Dr Shaeen Shahid. Agencies are also attempting to reconstruct Red Fort bomber Umar Nabi’s movements and interactions in the days leading up to the blast. According to the reports, more than 50 staff members, including doctors, have been questioned by the investigators.
Other arrested members of Jaish
Delhi car blast: Two other members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed module were working at Al-Falah University — Pahalgam resident Dr. Muzammil Ganai and Lucknow resident Dr. Shaheen Shahid Ansari. Others who have been arrested include Dr. Adeel Rather, employed at a private hospital in Saharanpur, and Kashmiri cleric Mufti Irfan Wagay.
There are also reports that security agencies are collecting information from private hospitals across Delhi, including details of doctors who obtained their MBBS degrees from Al-Falah University, as well as those who studied in Bangladesh, the UAE, China, or Pakistan.
Who is Dr Shaheen Shahid?
Delhi car blast: Shaheen hails from Lucknow. She was married to Zafar Hayat from Maharashtra. In 2015, they were divorced, after which she lived alone while working at Al-Falah University in Faridabad. The agencies believe that she was indoctrinated while working at Al-Falah. Shaheen is also linked to the newly formed Jamaat-ul-Mominaat, an organisation reportedly launched by the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed last month. She was in charge of women’s recruitment to the group.
She is also being questioned for her alleged contact with a handler in Pakistan, possibly tasked with recruiting women for terrorist activities. Her arrest is part of a wider, multi-state crackdown spanning Kashmir, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, during which authorities seized 2,900 kg of explosives in Faridabad.
