Two clerics 800 Km apart bound by one trail of terror behind Red Fort blast that killed 13

Two clerics, separated by 800 kilometres — one in Kashmir’s Shopian and the other in Haryana’s Faridabad — are at the heart of a terror probe that investigators say culminated in the Red Fort blast. One allegedly indoctrinated recruits, the other rented out space to a doctor who stockpiled explosives.

The cleric from Shopian

In Nadigam village, 24-year-old Irfan Ahmad Wagay, known locally as Mufti Sahab, led prayers for seven years at a mosque in Nowgam, Srinagar. His family says he lived a quiet, devout life until police arrested him on October 18 as part of a sweeping probe into an “inter-state and transnational” module linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.

“I have never seen him do anything but pray,” said his wife Fatima, who is pregnant. Police allege Wagay radicalized members of the module, but his family insists he had never been questioned or suspected before. Educated at Darul Uloom Bilalia and later Deoband, Wagay was respected locally for his religious knowledge.

After his arrest, the investigation spread across Anantnag, Ganderbal, and Shopian, and later to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, leading to the arrests of several doctors allegedly tied to the network.

The cleric from Haryana

In Faridabad’s Dhauj, Maulana Ishtiyaq, a cleric at a mosque on the Al Falah University campus, was detained by J&K Police and brought to Srinagar. He had rented a room in his Fatehpur Taga home to Dr Muzammil Ganai, one of the main accused, where explosives were later recovered.

Ishtiyaq’s daughter said the family lives off her father’s ₹10,000 university salary and income from selling buffalo milk. “He never spoke of anything except prayer,” she said. Villagers described him as a quiet man who mostly interacted with university staff and mosque-goers.

The widening net

The arrests of the two clerics, separated by distance but bound by an alleged terror link, have deepened the investigation into the network behind the Red Fort blast that killed nine. What began as routine prayers in two distant mosques has turned into one of the most complex terror probes spanning Kashmir, Haryana, and beyond.