Radicalisation in Plain Sight

The Delhi blast exposes a deeply embedded, white-collar terror module involving scholars and doctors, challenging assumptions about who radicalises—and how quietly networks expand across India

- SHANTANU MUKHARJI

The scale of explosives recovered and the nature of recruits signal a dangerous shift in India's evolving terror ecosystem

The chain of events that began with a few threatening posters in a Srinagar neighbourhood has now exploded—literally—into one of India's most chilling cases of “white-collar” terrorism.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police initiated their investigation after threatening JeM posters appeared at several locations in the Bunpora Nowgam area on 19 October 2025. What seemed like a routine probe into a small local attempt at intimidation has instead exposed a sprawling, meticulously linked terror network populated not by stereotypical foot-soldiers but by educated professionals—scholars, doctors, faculty members—people who, by conventional logic, we assume are insulated from violent radicalisation.

In the initial sweep, J&K Police picked up a few suspects, including Irfan Ahmad, a 24-year-old Muslim scholar from Shopian who preached at a local Srinagar mosque. His interrogation opened the first door. He named another individual—‘Adeel Rather, a doctor from Wanpora village, Kulgam, arrested from Saharanpur in UP. Police claim that an assault rifle was recovered from his locker in the Government Medical College, Anantnag, That seizure, shocking enough on its own, led investigators further down a disturbing trail.