Rajiv Sachan. The driver of the car that exploded near the Red Fort in Delhi, killing more than ten people, turned out to be a doctor. His name was Umar Mohammad. He either blew himself up with the explosive-laden car or accidentally caused the explosion. Umar, from Pulwama, turned out to be an associate of the three doctors who were found in possession of approximately 3,000 kilograms of explosives and weapons in Faridabad.

One of them is named Dr. Muzammil and the other is Dr. Adil. Both are from Kashmir. Their third companion is Dr. Shaheen, who is from Lucknow. Their other companions are also being searched for. It would not be surprising if they find other doctors in contact with terrorists. Besides these doctors, another doctor, Dr. Mohiuddin, is in Gujarat Police custody. He studied medicine in China. The Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested him along with two of his companions with weapons. He was preparing to make the deadly poison ricin from castor seeds, so that he could kill many people simultaneously.

This isn’t the first time a doctor’s name has surfaced in a terrorist plot or incident. Several doctors have been caught engaging in terrorism before. The most shocking recent arrest was that of Pune doctor Adnan Ali Sarkar, who was arrested by the NIA in 2023. He was a respected doctor in the city but was working for the dreaded terrorist group ISIS. In addition to doctors, several other terrorists have been arrested in recent years, including engineers.

One of them was working for a multinational company in Bengaluru and, under the name Shami Witness, was active online, inciting Muslim youth to join ISIS and even helping them escape to Syria. Besides doctors and engineers, many other highly educated Muslim youth have been arrested as terrorists. Some were not caught because they reached Syria and Afghanistan to help ISIS or Al Qaeda before the police could catch them. Now, it is difficult to count the number of educated and even highly educated youth who have become terrorists.

The notion that only the uneducated or poor become terrorists due to religious fanaticism or persecution has been proven completely false. In the last two to three decades, countless Muslim youth in India and abroad have chosen to become terrorists, even though they were highly educated. ISIS has attracted the most such youth from across the world. In India, from Kerala to Kashmir, many educated Muslim youth have become terrorists. Initially, there were reports that they came in contact with some jihadist cleric or maulana and became terrorists. Then, reports began to emerge that they became terrorists after viewing jihadist material on the internet. Some became so intoxicated with religious fanaticism that they formed their own terrorist groups under names like Ghazwa-e-Hind or something similar. Is it a secret that such names are inspired by religious beliefs?

Those who choose to become terrorists while pursuing medical or engineering studies cannot be said to have been harassed or struggling financially. They could have lived a happy life, but they were obsessed with becoming terrorists. The answer to this cannot be found in the statement that terrorism has no religion. This statement is always controversial, but there is no dispute that it is under the guise of religion or with its support that people take the path of terrorism. Jihadi groups around the world are armed with religious beliefs. They use these beliefs to justify their jihadist activities. Fatwas have been issued against them from time to time, but now that doctors and engineers are also becoming terrorists, it proves that they are not proving effective.

Jihadi terrorism is the product of an ideology. This dangerous ideology cannot be tackled by the police, intelligence agencies, and governments alone. Tackling it is the responsibility of society, along with governments. Society can fulfill this responsibility only when it understands that the problem lies in religious principles and values, which are easily interpreted as desired. To combat jihadi terrorism, it is also essential to avoid cheap and narrow politics. As soon as the blast in Delhi occurred, the second phase of voting in Bihar was mentioned with relish and people started saying, “Find out if there are elections anywhere?” Such shallow talk only helps the terrorists and their supporters.

From one part of the country or another, news constantly comes of police busting terrorist modules, arresting terrorists, and seizing explosives and weapons from them. This does not mean that the terrorist threat is diminishing. In fact, it is increasing day by day, as even those in respectable professions are becoming terrorists.