The Long Game: How a Unified Islamist Front Plotted India's Largest Terror Operation Since 2017 (Delhi Bomb Blast 2025)
- Dr. Deepessh Divaakaran
- 3 days ago
- 13 min read
In the aftermath of the deadly Delhi Bomb Blast 2025 (Red Fort Metro) on November 10, 2025, a deeper, more chilling reality has emerged. What appeared to be a singular, localized attack in the heart of Delhi is now being investigated as the tip of an iceberg, a sprawling, multi-layered terror conspiracy engineered over the past eight years.
For the first time in modern Indian history, a unified Islamist front comprising elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan's ISI, ISIS-K, JeM, and other sub-state actors operated in strategic synchrony with one objective: to destabilize India from within.
This article explores how the blueprint for such an unprecedented attack was drafted, financed, and incubated silently within India's own academic, professional, and digital ecosystems.
It also outlines how enemy states, transnational jihadist networks, and local radicalized actors converged under a new architecture of 5th-generation warfare.
Contents
Phase I: Origins: Ideological Seeding of Delhi bomb blast 2025 (2017 - 2020)
The first layer of this complex plot dates back to 2017, following the geopolitical turbulence in the Middle East and the strengthening of Turkey's political Islam under President Erdogan. Intelligence inputs from multiple agencies indicate that factions aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood began to shift their operational focus eastward, identifying India as a critical front for ideological expansion and soft invasion.
This ideological push found roots in vulnerable Indian academic ecosystems, especially private medical and technical universities with minimal scrutiny. Institutions such as Al-Falah University in Faridabad, GMC Srinagar, and Integral University in Lucknow gradually became nodes of ideological influence. Student exchange programs, Gulf-funded educational scholarships, and online religious seminars were quietly infiltrated by operatives posing as Islamic scholars or educators.
Phase II: Organizational Convergence: The Brotherhood Doctrine in Action
By 2023, a loose coalition of Islamist entities began functioning under a more centralized model, driven by the Brotherhood's decades-old vision of a global caliphate. This coalition included:
ISI for strategic oversight, route mapping, and secure communications.
Brotherhood networks for long-term ideological vision and academic infiltration.
Turkey based cells for cyber support, psychological operations, and radicalization content.
JeM and AGH for ground logistics and bomb-making.
ISIS-K for ideological purity and suicide cadre training.
Jamaat-ul-Mominat as flyoff Women only Faction of LeT.
This architecture operated on a strict compartmentalization model. Most members never knew the full scope of the operation. Only a few top handlers, such as the Turkey-based "Ukasa" and ISI linked digital war room officers, maintained holistic operational control.
Phase III: Digital Infrastructure and Radicalization (2020 - 2022)
COVID-19 catalysed a massive shift to online education and communication, creating the perfect cover for transnational radicalization. Telegram, Discord, and Matrix servers began hosting Quran-coded sermons, encrypted recruitment drives, and virtual "emotional grooming" sessions, particularly targeting young Indian Muslims studying medicine or abroad.
Handlers based in Turkey and Qatar, backed by shell Islamic charities, began to recruit digital operatives trained in cyber anonymity, VPN routing, and encrypted fundraising. These operatives were introduced to JeM and ISIS-K doctrine through sophisticated indoctrination programs masquerading as Islamic theology courses.
Radicalized medical students were seen as high-value assets: trusted, educated, mobile, and financially independent. They had access to chemical labs, hospital waste systems, and in some cases, classified data. In psychological warfare, they represented the perfect asymmetric soldier.
Phase IV: Financial Architecture: The UPI-Hawala Hybrid Funnel
What makes this terror plot exceptionally dangerous is its innovative financing model. Traditional hawala systems were augmented with India's own fintech boom. Between 2021 and 2024, over 35 UPI IDs linked to fake clinics and telemedicine apps routed more than ₹20 crore to sleeper cells.
These payments were framed as consultation fees, donations for "urgent surgeries," and zakat contributions. Each transfer was split into microtransactions to avoid suspicion. A portion of these funds flowed back into Turkey and Pakistan via crypto exchanges and darknet wallets, effectively creating a self-sustaining terror fund.
Gulf-based trusts under the guise of educational NGOs further funnelled money into Indian universities and medical coaching centres, offering scholarships and fellowships that doubled as ideological conditioning platforms.
Breakdown of Supply Chain Responsibilities (Weapons, Funds, Logistics)
They didn't just plan a blast. They built a supply chain. A shadow network, layered, encrypted, and engineered like a multinational war company.
Each node had a specialty. Some moved weapons. Others moved money. A few just whispered orders into encrypted voids.
What followed wasn’t chaos. It was coordination.
This is the machinery that armed the invisible. The backend of India's first high-IQ, white-collar terror war.
1. Pakistan’s ISI (State-Level Orchestrator)
Funding:
Routed large-scale funds via ISI-front NGOs and Pakistan-based religious trusts.
Used intermediaries in Gulf states and crypto networks to mask trails.
Weapons Supply:
Provided standard-issue AK-47s, ammonium nitrate, and military-grade detonators to JeM & AGH via LoC smuggling routes.
Logistics:
Directed operatives on safe routes, secure digital comms, and pre-approved vehicle swaps.
Oversaw sleeper cell activation schedules across Indian metros.
Key Responsible Officers (suspected): ISI’s “Kashmir Desk” + two Brigadier-rank handlers operating via embassy covers in UAE and Qatar.
2. JeM / AGH (On-Ground Logistics & Military Ops)
Weapons:
Coordinated smuggling of arms and explosives from POK to India via Kupwara, Rajouri, and Punjab routes.
Stockpiles maintained in Kulgam, Pulwama, and secret storage near Faridabad.
Funding:
Used hawala networks and Gulf-based JeM sympathizers.
Coordinated with Afira Bibi (Hafiz Saeed’s sister-in-law) for fund routing.
Logistics:
Embedded support staff in Al-Falah University, Kanpur vehicle logistics cell.
Key Actors:
Afira Bibi (Lahore): coordinated between JeM, Brotherhood, and ISIS-K. She was also in touch with Dr. Shaheen Shahid
Key Field Link: Dr. Muzammil Ganaie: liaison for materials and local procurement.
3. ISIS-K (Ideological Indoctrination & Suicide Cadres)
Weapons:
Supplied ricin precursors, bioweapon formulas, and manuals via deep web to Dr. Ahmed Saiyed in Gujarat.
Funding:
Cryptocurrencies via darknet wallets (Monero, Bitcoin).
Foreign donations disguised as “humanitarian support” from Turkey, Qatar.
Logistics:
Delivered training modules for IED wiring, suicide bombing protocol.
Activated Telegram-based ops cell through Ukasa’s handlers.
Key Connect: Provided digital doctrine to Dr. Shaheen Shahid and female suicide squad “Jamaat-ul-Mominat”.
4. Muslim Brotherhood (Ideological + Academic Penetration)
Funding:
Created fellowships, scholarships, academic grants to radicalized medical students.
Gulf-based educational NGOs funnelled lakhs via Crypto, UPI apps to fake clinics and online “Islamic consultation” portals.
Logistics:
Positioned sleeper agents in Faridabad, Lucknow, Saharanpur, through local madrassas and universities.
Trained digital operatives in information cloaking and VPN masking.
Key Actors:
Ukasa (Turkey) – top handler responsible for encryption, digital recruitment.
Afira Bibi (Lahore) – coordinated between JeM, Brotherhood, and ISIS-K.
5. Al-Falah University / GMC Srinagar / Kanpur Logistics Cell
Weapons:
Al-Falah lab technicians aided in nitrate purification, IED testing.
Funding:
Received funds disguised as institutional donations or conference sponsorships.
Logistics:
Handled storage, mobility, and transport of arms and explosive material.
The operation's success depended on a tight network of operatives, many of whom held professional or academic positions in Indian society. Here's how the key individuals were connected:
Key Individuals Inside India - Roles, Links, Storage
Behind every blast, there is a face. But this time, those faces weren’t masked. They wore white coats. They signed prescriptions. They lectured in classrooms.
These weren’t operatives from caves. They were doctors, researchers, university staff, educated, salaried, and invisible to suspicion.
They didn’t smuggle guns across borders. They hosted them in hostels. They purified chemicals in university labs. They received payments as “clinic fees” through UPI.
These were India’s insiders, fluent in science, fluent in sabotage. What follows is not a character list. It’s a dossier of betrayal, hiding in plain sight.
1. Dr. Shaheen Shahid (Faridabad)
Role: Recruiter, Female Suicide Cell Leader
Position: Ex-Faculty, Al-Falah University (Gynecologist)
Responsibilities:
Founded “Jamaat-ul-Mominat” – an all-female suicide cell.
Raised ₹20 lakh via UPI posing as a gynecology clinic.
Acted as middle node between ISIS-K, JeM, and Turkey-based handlers.
Coordinated With:
Ukasa (Turkey Handler)
Rukhsana Bibi (Wife of Hafiz Saeed's deceased brother)
ISIS-K Digital Doctrine Cell
Explosives Link: Directed Dr. Muzammil and Al-Falah lab techs to build IEDs.
2. Dr. Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie (Faridabad)
Role: Logistics Chief, Chemical Arms Fabricator
Position: Assistant Professor, Al-Falah University
Responsibilities:
Managed procurement and synthesis of ammonium nitrate-based explosives.
Supervised weapon and chemical storage.
Coordinated With:
JeM logistics operatives
ISI liaisons through encrypted channels
Weapons/Explosives Stored:
3000 kg ammonium nitrate, AK-47s, manuals stored in rented apartment near Al-Falah University.
3. Al-Falah University Lab Technicians (Unnamed, 4)
Role: Chemical Purification & IED Assembly
Responsibilities:
Assisted in creating high-potency explosive devices.
Operated under academic cover using university’s chemistry labs.
Coordinated With:
Dr. Muzammil for materials
Dr. Shaheen Shahid for direction
4. Dr. Umar Mohammad (Red Fort Bomber)
Role: Executor, Suicide Bomber
Position: MBBS, MD from GMC Srinagar; formerly worked at Al-Falah
Responsibilities:
Rigged and exploded IED-laden Hyundai i20 near Red Fort Metro.
Coordinated With:
Dr. Pervez (Lucknow) for route and vehicle handover.
Maulvi Irfan Ahmad Wagay for radicalization
Telegram Ops Cell for final trigger signal
5. Dr. Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed (Gujarat)
Role: Bioweapons Planner
Position: MBBS from China, caught in Gujarat
Responsibilities:
Procured 4L castor oil (ricin precursor).
Had manuals on chemical warfare and biological toxins.
Coordinated With:
ISIS-K digital cell
Possible Chinese or Gulf-based funders (still under probe)
Storage:
Chemicals were found in private medical practice storeroom.
6. Dr. Adeel Ahmad Rather (Kulgam)
Role: Finance & Arms Logistics
Relation: Brother of Dr. Adil Ahmad Rather
Responsibilities:
Moved funds from Kashmir to UP.
Handled interstate arms transfers.
Coordinated With:
Dr. Shaheen Shahid
JeM-linked supply cell in Kashmir
7. Dr. Adil Ahmad Rather (Saharanpur)
Role: Armed Radical, Logistic Agent
Position: MBBS, formerly at GMC Srinagar
Responsibilities:
Hid AK-47 in his college hostel locker.
Worked at ₹4L/month private hospital as cover.
Coordinated With:
Maulvi Irfan Wagay
JeM Kashmir cell
Weapons Stored:
AK-47 in hostel, near Srinagar Medical College
8. Dr. Pervez (Lucknow)
Role: Operational Facilitator
Responsibilities:
Arranged safe houses and vehicle drops.
Likely coordinated vehicle rigging for Red Fort attack.
Coordinated With:
Telegram Ops Cell
Dr. Umar Mohammad
9. Kanpur Logistics Cell (9 Unnamed Suspects)
Role: Vehicle Procurement
Responsibilities:
Sourced second-hand cars to be loaded with IEDs.
Managed movement between Delhi, Noida, Lucknow.
Coordinated With:
Dr. Ganaie and sleeper contacts in Faridabad
10. Maulvi Irfan Ahmad Wagay (Shopian)
Role: Ideological Radicalizer
Past: Former paramedic turned fundamentalist preacher
Responsibilities:
Groomed Umar, Adil, and others via sermons and Telegram.
Provided justification for martyrdom.
Coordinated With:
Ukasa for doctrine
11. Umar Un Nabi (Faridabad / Al-Falah University)
Role: Faculty Liaison, Internal Shield
Position: Staff or academic at Al-Falah University
Status: Recently named as a potential insider connected to the logistics layer.
Responsibilities (based on emerging reports):
Provided institutional cover for Dr. Shaheen Shahid and Dr. Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie.
May have facilitated access to labs, equipment rooms, and academic storage zones.
Allegedly helped divert scrutiny from students and technicians involved in bomb material handling.
Coordinated With:
Dr. Shaheen Shahid – as part of Al-Falah’s internal support structure.
Al-Falah lab techs – assisted or covered material movement.
Storage/Access:
May have had access to chemical storerooms, restricted labs, and IT systems used to erase internal traces.
All of these actors were part of different organizational arms but linked through handlers, encrypted networks, and financial routes. Each played a compartmentalized but interdependent role.
Execution Blueprint: Parallel Cities, Single Objective
The ultimate aim was not just one bomb in Delhi. It was simultaneous blasts across at least 25 Indian cities: Ayodhya, Lucknow, Delhi, Noida, Jaipur, Pune, Bengaluru, and more. The blueprint mapped metro stations, court premises, police headquarters, and religious sites.
Red Fort was chosen as a symbolic target, to mock India’s sovereignty at its historic seat of power.
Doctors like Umar Mohammed and Dr. Shaheen Shahid were not anomalies. They were case studies in the weaponization of intellect.
A white-collar war had begun, not with drones or jets, but with MBBS, BTech and other degrees and UPI apps.
Each operational node had its own logistics chain, bomb-maker, financier, and Session / Telegram handler.
Materials such as ammonium nitrate (3000 kg recovered in Faridabad), ricin precursors (seized in Gujarat), and arms (AK-47s) had already been stored.
The trigger date was tentatively set for 26th November 2025, marking Anniversary of 26/11, and also when public movement peaks.
One handler's arrest and a seized laptop in Saharanpur cracked the sequence prematurely, averting what would have been India’s deadliest day since 26/11.
Why This Changes Everything
This incident marks a paradigm shift. Unlike traditional terror plots that rely on low-income recruits and clandestine camps, this was a high-IQ, low-visibility operation. It exploited India’s digital infrastructure, academic leniency, fintech explosion, and bureaucratic gaps.
It confirms:
Universities are now ideological battlegrounds.
Digital wallets are the new hawala.
Education is no longer a shield against radicalization.
It also confirms the emergence of a federated jihadist architecture backed by state and non-state actors, capable of hybrid warfare that is as psychological as it is physical.
The Architecture of Convergence: A Federated Jihadist War Model
What unfolded was not a lone wolf attack. It was not a fringe ideology gone rogue. It was a joint asymmetric intelligence-led operation, carefully layered and globally orchestrated.
At the centre sat Pakistan’s ISI. Not just watching, but coordinating. Directing route maps, validating sleeper cells, protecting communication lines. They were the glue behind logistics, safehouses, and plausible deniability. Flanking ISI’s influence were Islamist non-state actors: Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) for on-ground operatives.
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) for terrain familiar with Kashmir. ISIS-K for suicide cadre grooming, ideological rigor, and martyrdom doctrine.
But the most insidious weapon was invisible: The Muslim Brotherhood.
Operating through Gulf-funded NGOs, educational fellowships, and academic partnerships. They wrote the syllabus of slow radicalization. Not to explode instantly, but to incubate silently, until activation.
Turkey became the cyber cockpit. Digital handlers like “Ukasa” provided Telegram training, Quran-coded commands, and VPN cloaking tools. Turkish NGOs distributed money disguised as Islamic relief.
Charities became command centres. Seminars became selection camps. The actors were not illiterates. They were doctors, professors, medical interns, lab techs.
They passed exams by day, built bombs by night. They were trained in empathy, then rewired for entropy. This was not jihad from the margins.
It was jihad from the middle class. From campuses. From clinics. From credentialed, articulate faces no one suspected.
And this is what makes it most dangerous: The enemy no longer looks like an enemy.
The Strategic Goal: Internal Collapse Without External Invasion
This was never about just thirteen lives. It was about fracturing the very idea of India from within. A calibrated strike on its social immune system, not its border patrols.
The aim was simple: Trigger fragmentation without firing across the border.
Create enough chaos that the educated become feared, the Muslim becomes suspect, and the city becomes unsafe in its own eyes.
This is how modern wars are won: By breaking the mindset of unity, not the walls of a nation.
The strategy was designed to achieve four psychological ruptures:
Trust in the educated class? Gone.
When a doctor becomes a bomber, the hospital becomes the new war zone.
Sense of safety in metros? Gone.
If Red Fort isn’t safe, what is? Metro rides now feel like calculated risks.
Public view of Indian Muslims? Polarized.
A narrative poisoned by fear spreads faster than facts. A social detonation in the making.
Pressure on Indian security? Maxed out.
Internal resources stretched thin.
Policing universities, cities, and digital spaces all at once.
One state of alert away from institutional fatigue.
This wasn't just terrorism. It was information warfare, psychological sabotage, and identity erosion wrapped in a single event. A prototype of what may come next, unless intercepted early.
The Delhi blast wasn’t an isolated explosion. It was the loudest note in a silent orchestra.
A war machine built with layers of ideology, encrypted whispers, and surgical precision.
At the centre: a federated jihadist matrix.
Not one group. Not one ideology. But many, converging under one blueprint.
The image below captures this exact hierarchy of terror - each node a role, each line a whisper, each arrow a command:
This network was not built in a month. It was layered from 2017 onward, across borders, ideologies, and professions.
The image is more than a chart. It is a mirror.
A reflection of how deeply modern jihad has infiltrated the very heart of Indian civility.
What exploded near Red Fort was not just an i20. It was a warning.
India's enemies no longer come across borders. They wear lab coats. They teach in classrooms. They write prescriptions by day and plot car bombs by night. This is 5th-generation warfare, fluid, invisible, borderless. The real question is not how India will respond.
The Counterstrike Within: How Indian Intelligence Cracked the Code
They didn’t wait for another blast. They hunted the explosion before it happened.
The Delhi attack was just one strike. But India’s intelligence agencies had been tracking tremors long before the detonation.
And when the fog lifted, it was clear: This wasn’t just a bomb, it was a battlefield.
Intelligence Forces in Action
Intelligence Bureau (IB) had been silently tracking high-risk UPI transactions, flagged from Gulf-linked clinics since mid-2023.
National Investigation Agency (NIA) was already running surveillance on Al-Falah University-linked radicals after earlier inputs from foreign partners.
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) flagged Turkey's handler 'Ukasa' through signals intelligence intercepted in coordination with European counter-terror units.
Delhi Police Special Cell moved swiftly after explosive residues were found near Red Fort in a previous dry run.
Gujarat ATS broke open the ricin module, which tied into the larger grid.
UP Police and Anti-Terror Squad traced vehicle procurement through Kanpur.
J&K Police intercepted digital chatter in Shopian and Kulgam, tracking down radicalized brothers Adil and Adeel.
This was one of the rarest cases where inter-agency cooperation worked with near-surgical precision.
From local police to global liaisons, each piece of intelligence clicked like a code-breaking lock. No agency tried to take credit. They acted as a unit. Quiet. Calculated. Ruthless.
And when the i20 exploded near Red Fort, the real ignition had already happened—inside Indian counterintelligence.
How India May Respond Next
Diplomatically: Turkey, Qatar, and Pakistan will face severe backchannel heat. Expect travel blacklists, public denouncements, and G20‑level intelligence leaks.
Strategically: India will likely rewire university-level surveillance for foreign-funded labs and clinics. A new framework may emerge for vetting medical degrees from select Islamic nations.
Militarily: Expect covert and overt operations across LoC against JeM and AGH assets. Cyber-intel ops may target handlers like Ukasa. RAW may expand HUMINT assets in Turkey and Lahore. Operation Sindhoor 2 has Begun.
But the most important response? India will change the way it looks at threat vectors. Not just guns. But stethoscopes. Not just borders. But campuses.
This was not the end of an operation.
It was the beginning of a new doctrine.
Any Act of Terror is now Act of War.
