November 13, 2025 07:21 AM IST First published on: Nov 13, 2025 at 07:21 AM ISTAfter a lull of almost a decade and a half, the national capital shuddered. A powerful blast near the Red Fort Metro Station ripped through the balmy evening air, killing 13 people and injuring several others. The incident instantly brought back memories from the 1990s and early 2000s, when terror attacks were more frequent.After the initial confusion, it is now clear that it was a terror attack. However, it may not have been a planned or targeted one. Reportedly, the attacker may have had no specific target and may have been in a panic when the bomb went off.AdvertisementA closer examination of the incident indicates that this could be a direct result of the successful operation conducted by our agencies a few days ago when they recovered 2.9 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and busted a Faridabad-based terror module. Investigative agencies have been chasing others involved in it. As a desperate measure, the scared bomber might have driven the car to a busy area.Quite clearly, investigative agencies — the National Investigative Agency (NIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and others — have done commendable work over the past few years, which has resulted in a lot of terror cells and networks being busted, including the one in Faridabad. It is as if 1,000 goals were saved by our agencies, but by a stroke of sheer bad luck, one was scored.The one aspect that stands out is the involvement of at least four to five doctors in this sleeper cell. This indicates it is not just unemployed or uneducated youngsters who are being radicalised, but people with white-collar jobs too. This is a dangerous trend.AdvertisementThis is clearly a new modus operandi adopted by terror groups. Since there is a continuous watch on unemployed youngsters, who have been radicalised in the past, terror groups have now resorted to indoctrinating educated people with respectable jobs. This is done keeping in mind that such people are not on the agency watch-lists and go unnoticed.Investigations into the Red Fort blast have so far revealed that the operation was being conducted by a bunch of medical professionals who are allegedly linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the Pakistan-based terror outfit founded by Maulana Masood Azhar.According to reports, this Faridabad terror module was a nine-to-10-member sleeper cell that had five to six doctors in it. Apart from this, investigators have also picked up two doctors from Kashmir for questioning. Another troubling fact is that this sleeper cell was active across a Union Territory and two states: Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Reportedly, a woman doctor was also in the process of forming a women’s terror cell.All this indicates that while investigating agencies may have been successful in busting this terror module, their job is far from over. In fact, it may now have increased manifold. Before this, we knew that terror outfits target unemployed and vulnerable young men and women who would be radicalised and trained for “jihadi” wars in Syria, Libya and other places. But now, if middle-aged people with regular jobs are being radicalised, then our agencies will have to put all their efforts into identifying such people.most readThey will have to use all possible resources, the latest technology, state-of-the-art equipment, and human intelligence to fight this war on terror, which seems to have raised its ugly head in a new form.Unfortunately, for our agencies and our country, the fight against terror, terrorism and terrorists seems to be ongoing. No matter how many successes we have, they will always be lurking in the shadows, ready to strike when we least expect it.The fight against terror continues.The writer is Director General of Police (DGP) (Retd), Maharashtra, former Police Commissioner of Mumbai and former chief of the Mumbai Crime Branch. His latest book is The Brahmastra Unleashed