From Nowgam to Netaji Subhash Marg: A blast and the aftermath

The chain of events that culminated in the November 10 Red Fort blast began rather innocuously in Srinagar’s Nowgam neighbourhood in mid-October, when a set of “anti-India” posters appeared on walls and shopfronts.

- HT Correspondents

What appeared like a minor case of local provocation soon revealed itself to be the front end ofa sophisticated, white-collar terror module that spanned universities, hospitals and rented homes across Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.The investigation into the posters led officers toa clericMoulvi Irfan Ahmad, who had supplied Jaish-e-Mohammad propaganda material - and to Zamir Ahmad, arrested alongside him in late October.

Their questioning triggered a probe into a wider network. On November 5, police apprehended Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather from Saharanpur. An AK-47 rifle was recovered two days later from Rather's locker at Government Medical College, Anantnag, where he worked until late October.

‘Adeel’s interrogation, investigators said, unveiled a network of young professionals - doctors, researchers, postgraduate trainees — allegedly radicalised and recruited by handlers linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH).