'We Are Doomed, What More Can Be Said’: Families of Kashmiri Doctors Linked to 'Terror Module' Case

Koil, Pulwama (J&K): When Umar Nabi joined the prestigious Government Medical College in J&K’s capital Srinagar to study medicine, it felt like a personal achievement for his father Ghulam Nabi Bhat who too had once aspired to become a doctor.

“No one in the family slept on the day when his results came,” said Bhat, 53, on November 12, sitting on the porch of his dilapidated double-storey house in Koil village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

”It felt like a dream come true.”

This dream started taking the shape of a nightmare after unconfirmed reports began circulating in the media earlier this week claiming that Nabi, an assistant professor of medicine at Al Falah University in Faridabad, drove the Hyundai car which exploded near the Red Fort in New Delhi on November 10.

Officials have not confirmed these reports.

Bhat, father of three sons and a daughter, said that he had to quit his government teacher job in 2012, following which his family’s economic condition deteriorated.

“When he left the job,” Bhat’s brother who was sitting beside him on the porch told The Wire, “my sister-in-law … what should I tell you … literally begged to provide for Nabi’s studies."

“He was their only bread earner. We had no idea that our world would crash like this”.

The house of Dr Nabi which has been raided multiple times by security forces since November 6 when he went missing. Photo: Jehangir Ali.

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Tucked behind an iron gate in Muslimpora locality, Bhat’s house in the quaint village of Koil, some 33 kilometres from the summer capital Srinagar, has been raided multiple times by security forces since November 6 when the family lost contact with the young doctor.

Nabi, Bhat’s second son, had studied at government-run schools in the village and thereabouts due to his family’s poor economic condition. He has never attended private tuitions but offered prayers regularly, said his uncle.

When he first appeared in the NEET exam, he was selected for veterinary science. In his second attempt, he got into GMC Srinagar which has produced some of the country’s best doctors.

Shining example

After cracking the national exam, sources said, Nabi was a “hardworking student” and was known as an “intelligent” medico during his years at the GMC Srinagar where he always figured among the toppers of his batch.

For his relatives and neighbours, the young man was a shining example of sheer perseverance leading to excellence in early career.

“He wore nearly tattered clothes and went to college in chappals. He didn’t have many friends because he was only concerned about his studies,” said a neighbour sitting on the porch beside Ghulam Bhat.

A distraught-looking youngster who identified himself as a cousin of the missing doctor walked out of the main door and led this reporter into the house.

Inside the low-ceilinged room which belonged to Nabi, a Textbook of Practical Physiology by C.L Ghai and a Groundwork of Educational Theory by James S. Ross lay scattered on a messy pile of books, document folders, a few mattresses, two quilts, plastic bags and an empty can of cooking oil.

The belongings of Dr Nabi’s room after a raid by security forces. Photo: Jehangir Ali.

The youngster said that the chaos was the result of a recent raid by security forces.

The family’s poverty is evident in the weathered gypsum plaster walls of the room which have never been painted. Years of grime are evident on the white plaster which is peeling away in places.

A layer of plaster appears freshly applied, seemingly with bare hands, to cover the gaps around the frame of one of the room’s two windows.

“He was the kind of doctor who correctly guessed a patient’s condition merely by how they looked. He was a role model for all of us,” the youngster said.

'Terror Module'

The J&K Police earlier claimed to have busted a terror module with the arrest of two doctors – Adeel Ahmad Bhat and Muzzamil Shakeel Ganie, from Saharanpur and Faridabad respectively, along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

Ganie is also from Koil.

His father Shakeel Ahmad Ganie’s house is located some 300 metres from Nabi's residence in the village’s Huirpora locality, among a cluster of three to four houses which are connected to the main road by a common iron gate painted blue.

The cluster of double-storey houses surround a wide compound in which three hatchback cars are parked.

Ganie is a prosperous apple farmer who bought a ‘payment seat’ with several lakhs of rupees so that his son could study medicine at Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital in Jammu.

Shakeel Ahmad Ganie, father of Dr Muzamil Shakeel who was arrested in Faridabad, speaking with female relatives and neighbours outside his house. Photo: Jehangir Ali.

After completing his MBBS degree in 2016-17, the youngster worked briefly at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar before moving to Al Falah University in Faridabad where he worked as a senior resident, as part of his Diplomate of National Board postgraduate degree.

The young doctor was arrested from Faridabad in connection with the J&K terror module case.

Speaking with The Wire, Asmat Shakeel described her brother as a “kind and religious” human being who remained grounded to his roots despite achieving success in professional life.

“He used to see a lot of poor patients in Faridabad. Sometimes he would share their stories with us and advise that we should remain thankful to god for what we have,” Shakeel told The Wire.

She denied allegations that her brother was a member of the terror module. “He was always focused on studies. What the media has been reporting is all lies,” said Shakeel, who was supposed to have had her wedding on November 9-10. This function has been postponed indefinitely after her brother was taken into police custody.

‘We are doomed'

Two days after the Red Fort blast, even though officials have not yet confirmed the identity of the car driver, a trickle of relatives and neighbours continues to pour in at the residence of Nabi.

There is an atmosphere of deep mourning in the house.

Unconfirmed reports quoting security agencies said that Nabi had been on the run from Monday evening onwards.

A report has claimed that a DNA test was conducted to match the samples of Nabi’s mother with the suspected human remains recovered from the mangled remains of the car which blew up near Red Fort, killing at least 13 people.

A woman doctor from Lucknow has also been arrested while several medicos have been questioned in connection with the case. It has not been officially linked to the Delhi blast.

Since the blast shook the country on November 10, Bhat’s house in Koil has been swamped by security forces and journalists amid unconfirmed reports that seek to project his son as a ‘suicide bomber’.

The family has confirmed that the young bearded man seen in the photo which was leaked by security agencies as the possible suspect of the car blast case was indeed Nabi.

Bhat and his wife were questioned by police in connection with the disappearance of their son while their other two sons have been detained.

Bhat denies allegations of links of his doctor son with the Delhi blast.

When a reporter at the house tried to probe, the former teacher’s brother and Nabi’s uncle cut him short. “We are doomed. What more can be said?”.

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