Dr. Shaheen Shaheed, a doctor from Lucknow, has been arrested for her alleged involvement in a terror module linked to the Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). According to sources, Shaheen was reportedly given the task of setting up and leading the women’s wing of JeM in India. The group, founded by Masood Azhar, is known for several major terror attacks in the past.

Investigators believe Shaheen was assigned by Sadia Azhar, Masood Azhar’s sister and the head of JeM’s women’s wing in Pakistan, to create a female recruitment and operations network in India under the name Jamaat-ul-Momineen. This network was meant to connect radicalised women and sympathisers through social media and other secret communication channels.

Security agencies said Shaheen was in contact with handlers across the border and was working to expand JeM’s reach in India. Her arrest came after a terror module was busted in Faridabad on Monday, where the police found 2,900 kilograms of explosives and other dangerous materials in rented rooms belonging to another accused, Muzamil Shakeel, a doctor from Kashmir.

The same module is suspected to be behind the car blast near Delhi’s Red Fort, which killed 10 people. Sources said that another suspect, Mohammad Umar, who worked as a doctor at Al Falah Medical College in Faridabad, carried out the blast alone after his associates were caught earlier that day.

After the blast, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) raided Shaheen’s home in Lucknow and seized her official records. She had worked as an assistant professor at GSVM Medical College in Kanpur after being selected through the Public Service Commission. However, she went on unauthorised leave in 2013 and stopped responding to notices, leading to her dismissal in 2021.

Shaheen was married to a man named Zafar Hayat, but they divorced in 2015. Since then, she had been living in Lucknow and had reportedly become untraceable for a time. Former colleagues expressed shock at her alleged role, saying she had never shown any extremist behaviour. Investigating agencies are now checking her background, contacts, and movements to uncover how she became linked to a terror network.