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PULWAMA: A quiet lane with open shops in Koil village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama. The path leads to the two-storey home of 29-year-old doctor Umar Un Nabi, believed to have been inside the car linked to Monday’s explosion in New Delhi. Women huddled in the kitchen. Then police arrived for his mother. Officers said she was taken for DNA sampling to match remains salvaged from the blast.Relatives said police first 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 came back and 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,” she said. A top student at Govt Medical College in Srinagar, he later worked at GMC Anantnag before moving to Faridabad’s Al-Falah University.“He came from a poor family and he was our only hope,” she said. “His father was a teacher who later lost his senses and is unable to do any work. I can’t believe Umar could be involved in such a thing.”Koil 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 the Srinagar–Jammu highway, where civilian vehicles halt for passing security convoys, a protocol in place since the 2019 Pulwama attack.A km 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, family members faced cameras and questions.His father Shakeel Ahmad said police informed them Thursday. “They told us he had been brought from Faridabad for investigation. 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. I have worked very hard on them.”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 second arrested 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 UP’s Saharanpur, where he was arrested on Nov 6.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.
