2 more doctors, varsity staffers held in probe

THE LATEST DETENTIONS INCLUDE TWO DOCTORS IN UTTAR PRADESH, AND A STAFFER AT AL-FALAH WHO ALLEGEDLY FACILITATED THE RECRUITMENT OF KASHMIRI DOCTORS THERE

- Rohit Kumar Singh, Haidar Naqvi and Jignasa Sinha

Investigators detained at least five more people, including two doctors and two staffers of Al-Falah University in Faridabad, and launched a hunt for another doctor who visited Turkey with two other suspects, as part their nationwide investigation into an alleged terror module behind Monday's deadly blast near Red Fort in Delhi.

The latest detentions include two doctors in Uttar Pradesh — cardiologist Dr Mohammad Arif Mir, 32, from Kanpur, and Dr Farukh, a gynecologist from GS Medical College, Hapur — both originally from Jammu and Kashmir. The state's Anti-Terror ‘Squad (ATS) confirmed that both were picked up on suspicion of links to Dr Shaheen Shahid, the Lucknow-origin doctor arrested from Faridabad earlier this month.

According to ATS officials, Dr Mir was detained late Wednesday night from the Cardiology Institute of GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, while Dr Farukh was picked up on Thursday afternoon from his hostel in Hapur. They were later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and shifted to Delhi for interrogation.

“We only came to know that the ATS had taken Dr Arif for questioning. Beyond that, we have no information,” said Dr Umeshwar Pandey, head of the cardiology department in Kanpur. GS Medical College director Dr Manoj Shishodia confirmed that a police team had arrived to question Dr Farukh before taking him along.