Police take Umar’s father for questioning in Pulwama
PULWAMA: A quiet lane with open shops in Koil village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama leads to the two-storey home of doctor Umar Un Nabi, 29, believed to have been inside the car linked to the blast near Red Fort. Women were huddled in the kitchen, when police arrived for his mother. Officers said she was taken for DNA sampling to match remains salvaged from the blast, reports Naseer Ganai. Relatives said police turned up Monday evening, seized phones and took away two family members. “They then took my brother-in-law Zahoor Illahi. After a few hours, they took away my husband Ashiq Hussain Bhat,” said Umar’s sister-in-law Muzamila Akhtar. She said Tuesday morning brought a sweeping search. Akhtar said she last spoke to Umar Friday: “He told me he will be coming home after three days and we were all happy”. A top student at Govt Medical College in Srinagar, he later worked at GMC Anantnag before moving to Faridabad’s Al-Falah University. “He was our only hope,” she said. “His father was a teacher who later lost his senses… I can’t believe Umar could be involved in such a thing.”
Amid TV and social media frenzy over arrests, Koil goes on with business as usual
Koil village carried on with its day as news of doctors arrested in the Delhi-Faridabad terrorist investigation dominated TV news and social media. Shops stayed open. Traffic moved normally. Police checkpoints dotted roads, including Srinagar-Jammu highway, where civilian vehicles halt for passing security convoys, a protocol in place since Pulwama attack. A kilometre from Umar’s home, in another Koil cluster, lives the family of 32-year-old Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie. He was arrested in Faridabad. At the locality’s entrance, migrant labourers stitched mattresses for Rs 600 apiece. A bakery ran as usual. Inside Ganaie’s home, the family faced cameras and questions. His father Shakeel Ahmad said police informed them Tuesday. “They told us he had been brought from Faridabad for probe. We were shocked,” he said. Ganaie studied at a local school, cleared NEET, completed MBBS at Jammu’s Batra Medical College, earned his MD at SKIMS and joined Al-Falah University for DNB training. “He has been there for two years. He would call us regularly,” Shakeel said. “He came home in July when I underwent kidney surgery.” Shakeel said police searched their house Monday evening and took his elder son Mohammad Abbas. His daughter Asmat, who completed MBBS in Bangladesh, said: “We are shattered. I can’t believe my brother could be involved in such things. The case should be properly investigated.” Medical books lay scattered across rooms, including the kitchen. The third detained doctor, 30-year-old Adeel Majeed Rather of Qazigund in Kulgam, was a senior resident at Anantnag Medical College until mid-2024. He moved recently to Saharanpur in UP, where he was arrested Thursday. On Tuesday, police took another Pulwama doctor, Sajad Malik, into custody for questioning, bringing the number of Kashmir-born doctors linked to the case to four. It remained unclear whether Malik’s detention was aimed at gathering information about his friend Umar or if he was also being held as a suspect in the broader terrorism conspiracy.
