Delhi Blast Probe Exposes How Dr Shaheen Became a Key JeM Recruiter in North India

Investigators probing the Red Fort car blast that killed 12 people earlier this week are uncovering how a Faridabad-based medical academic, Dr Shaheen Shahid, allegedly transformed from a celebrated topper into a key recruiter for Jaish-e-Mohammad’s underground network across North India. Agencies believe she acted as a crucial bridge between Kashmiri radical ecosystems and logistical modules operating quietly in Delhi and Haryana.

Dr Shaheen, currently a faculty member at Al-Falah University, has emerged as the most significant North India–based suspect. Other accused in the case hail from Jammu and Kashmir, pointing to a coordinated operation stretching across state lines. Intelligence officials now suspect she held a senior position in the JeM women’s wing, Jamaat-ul-Mominat, a group that has historically played a role in recruitment, indoctrination and covert communication.

From Medical Topper to Suspected Terror Handler

Once known as a brilliant MBBS and MD graduate from Motilal Nehru Medical College in Allahabad, Shaheen also served as an Assistant Professor at Kanpur Medical College after clearing the UPPSC in 2006. Her personal life, however, reportedly took a sharp turn after her divorce in 2015 from Dr Jafar Hayat, an ophthalmologist from Maharashtra. That same year marked her withdrawal from family and colleagues — a shift investigators now view as the starting point of her radicalisation.

During this period, she met Dr Muzammil Ahmad Gai, a Pulwama-based doctor associated with the same Faridabad university. According to intelligence agencies, Muzammil, later linked to several funding and recruitment plots, introduced her to Kashmiri students quietly working as nodes in JeM’s urban networks under the guise of medical research.

Digital Forensics to Map Recruitment Web

A joint team of central agencies, the ATS and Jammu & Kashmir Police is tracing Shaheen’s online activity from 2015 to 2023 — including encrypted chats, deleted cloud backups and travel data — to determine how many students she guided, mentored or influenced. Investigators believe she built a decentralised network of young recruits, helping move information, funds and safe houses between Kashmir and North India.

Turkey Link Surfaces in Blast Plot

The blast, officially classified as a terrorist attack by the Union government, was allegedly planned to coincide with the December 6 Babri Masjid demolition anniversary. Two key suspects — the driver of the explosives-laden Hyundai i20, Dr Umar Nabi, and the Pulwama doctor, Dr Muzammil Ganaie — had travelled to Turkey in 2021. Agencies suspect that JeM handlers operating from Turkish safehouses directed both the Faridabad module and the Delhi operation from abroad.

A Network Built in Plain Sight

As investigators map the layers of coordination between Kashmiri operatives, urban sympathisers and foreign handlers, the case underscores how extremist networks exploited professional spaces and academic institutions to operate below the radar. What emerges is not only a terror module but a reminder of how radical machinery can embed itself quietly into everyday systems when vigilance falters.