Delhi Blast Probe: NIA suspects doctors used hospitals to store weapons

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the deadly car blast near Red Fort on November 10, has found a new angle in the case. The investigators suspect that the “white collar” terror module may include terrorists posing as medical professionals who allegedly used hospital spaces to hide weapons and explosives.

According to NDTV, some of the suspected doctors involved with the incident, whose medical qualifications are still not confirmed, may have used staff lockers in hospitals and medical centres to store arms and explosives. This method is reportedly similar to tactics used by Hamas in Gaza.

If so, then it increases the possibility of an advisory or even an operational link between the Pakistan-based terror group involved in the Red Fort blast and Hamas.

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Around 15 people died in the Red Fort car blast, and others were severely injured. The five main doctors, including a female, were arrested in connection with the terror module. Among them, the main accused, an assistant professor at Al-Falah University who drove the Hyundai i20 car, was a suicide bomber.

The theory that terrorists may have planned to use hospitals as storage sites for weapons grew stronger after an assault rifle, ammunition, and other harmful materials were recovered from a locker at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Anantnag. The locker belonged to an accused involved in the car blast incident.

That recovery and intel from interrogated suspects alerted the NIA to terrorists' plans to convert hospitals in Anantnag, Baramulla, and Budgam districts into weapons storage centres, relying on medical facilities as not generally being suspected of links to terrorism and terrorist activity.

Investigators say the approach mirrors cases in Gaza, where Israeli forces claimed Hamas hid weapons in the tunnels built by them under hospitals like Al-Shifa Hospital. The tunnels served as command-and-control centres.

NIA sources told NDTV, "The 10-member 'terror doctor' module behind the Red Fort blast linked to the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed – had similar plans."

Medical Dialogues had reported that over 200 doctors and staff at Al Falah University are reportedly under the scanner of the investigative agencies. Security agencies have been conducting frequent checks at Al Falah University, causing concern among university students and staff.

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