They were the last people anyone expected to find on a terror watch list. We know what happened recently. This investigative story, written by Shrey Joshi, will make you think about everything.
How many professionals do you suspect of being terrorists? Now, what about the profession of a doctor? Perhaps no one will believe them to be a part of something like this. The respected doctors, specialists with spotless careers and families, quietly living among hospitals and classrooms. Then came the arrests, one in Bengaluru, another in Pune, and soon a trail that stretched from Srinagar to Delhi. Behind the stethoscopes and surgical gloves, investigators found encrypted chats, coded payloads, and concealed weapons. Yes, they were professionals, but with hidden agendas. It wasn’t just ideology gone wrong; it was infiltration dressed in scrubs, a network that turned medicine into camouflage.
Let Corporate Soldiers bring you every bit of this story, which is as disturbing as it could be.
Healing Hands to Hostile Minds
It began quietly. A doctor here, another there. Each arrest seemed like an anomaly, until the pattern became impossible to ignore. India’s intelligence networks once believed that trained medics were the least likely recruits for terror outfits. But seems like that belief is now shattered. Recently, 300 kg of explosives (possibly ammonium nitrate) and an assault rifle were found and seized by a team of Jammu and Kashmir police. This was made after they arrested people who save lives. Yes, healing hands became the hostile minds. How these educated minds are nurturing the most horrific ideology? This is shocking for all of us. When the first arrest came in 2020, nobody saw a pattern. But now we all see the new pattern. The new pattern that blends professionals into sleeper cells. And here, the doctors who were the least likely picks for a terror cell have shattered our assumption that they can’t.
The Timeline
- August 2020 – Bengaluru
Dr. Abdur Rahman, an ophthalmologist. Known as a quiet man in a city hospital, but on paper, he was spotless; however, on the ground, he was chatting with ISKP operatives. He was transferring the coded data. But he was arrested before he could move further. The officers called the operation a ‘clean detainment’. But we know that this clean detainment left all of us brass uneasy.
- July 2023 – Pune
Here, another one, the so-called lifesaver, Dr. Adnan Ali, an anesthetist. Similar story, but was arrested for ISIS linkages. Same profile, same derailed ideology. Now this was a click. The Security Bureau flagged the pattern of their operations. They were educated radicals operated with precision and patience, like surgeons working in reverse.
- August 2024 – Ranchi
Then came the radiologist, Ishtiaq Ahmed. Don’t be shocked if we tell you that he was picked up for Al-Qaeda links. Yes. ‘That confirmed our worst fears,’ a senior counterterror analyst recalled. When professionals start blending with sleeper networks, they become ghost assets, a classified threat walking in open daylight. It is indeed the worst nightmare for us that came true.
The Initial Doubt, The Posters Praising Jaish-e-Mohammad
It started with ink. Posters and glue. Quiet, deliberate, and pasted before dawn on the cold walls of Srinagar. Nobody knew who put up the posters. The posters praising Jaish-e-Mohammed began appearing across neighbourhoods. These posters appeared like a silent signal nobody could decipher at first. To most, they were just another sign of old unrest. But to surveillance units, something about their placement, timing, and reach suggested something else. That’s when they went through the CCTV footage and when CCTV footage traced the man behind them. They were stunned to find the culprit, Dr. Adil Ahmed Rather. A physician with an MD, a respected face in Saharanpur’s medical circuit. Now at the centre of a covert ideology that had finally shown its hand.
October 2024 – Srinagar to Saharanpur
- Posters supporting Jaish-e-Mohammed surfaced one chilly morning across Srinagar.
- Command sent surveillance to sweep the area.
- CCTV eyes caught a man pasting them.
- The trail led all the way to Saharanpur, to Dr. Adil Ahmed Rather. MBBS, MD, working at a private hospital, once at GMC Anantnag.
When investigators pried open his old hospital locker, what rolled out wasn’t surgical gear, but an assault rifle. This revelation has shocked both medical and military circles. He was living in the system, not outside it. That’s is we call infiltration, not recruitment.
Operation Faridabad
November 2025 – Delhi-NCR Zone
Now, interrogation of Rather began, and he broke open the second layer. Dr. Muzzamil Shakeel, anesthetist at Al-Falah Hospital, Faridabad. Another from the same profession. The most noble profession, but it seems to be all a disguise now. The raid on his storehouse changed the tone of the briefing room. Nearly 2,900 kilograms of explosive-making materials.
NIA field commander said during the raid that it’s the grid itself. Hours later, the Red Fort shook under a powerful blast. Eight dead, many injured. Investigation teams read the signs as clear as day. Probably it was a panic-triggered detonation and likely from a cell fearing exposure after Shakeel’s arrest. An analyst noted the tragic blast as a rushed target. Not a mission, it was a reaction.
The Network in Scrubs
The deeper the investigation went, the clearer the pattern became. What began as isolated detentions turned into the contours of a professional underground that included physicians, anesthetists, and radiologists. These noble professionals weren’t so noble. They were all tied by the same derailed and inhuman ideology. Each arrest opened another layer for us. It revealed a fraternity gone rogue, a network operating behind hospital walls. They were not militants in training camps or fugitives in safe houses; they were educated insiders. They blended with public. They had intellect with intent. An intent to kill. To intelligence officers mapping the hierarchy, it was the most unnerving revelation yet, a terror grid wearing white coats.
Over months, names started surfacing like fragments of a larger playbook.
- Dr. Shaheen, caught with an assault rifle in her car.
- Dr. Ahmed Mohiuddin Syed, with ricin extraction materials and small arms.
- Traces linked back to ideological handlers across encrypted channels.
A retired major general is now advising internal security. They aren’t randoms. They were the thinking man’s recruits. Educated, trusted, invisible. You don’t see them coming, and that’s what makes them lethal.’ To officers on the ground, the betrayal stings differently. A doctor saves lives. That’s his creed. But indeed, when one turns rogue, it cuts deeper than facing an enemy with a gun. You expect a doctor to heal your son, not plan his funeral. This is what a paramilitary captain stationed in NCR.
The New Battlefield
It’s a new battlefield now. Now, maps no longer just mark borders; they mark belief systems. The enemy can be in a hospital corridor or can be a name on a prescription pad. With each layer exposed, investigators are forced to think upon a deeper question, ‘What drives a healer to harm?’ For agencies, the mission now moves beyond arrests. It’s containment of contagion, of radical thought, of invisible recruits, of trust silently replaced with doubt.
Be alert, be safe. Corporate Soldiers wishes safety for all.
