New Delhi: Al-Falah University in Haryana’s Faridabad district has come under intense scrutiny following the arrest of three doctors linked to the “white-collar terror module” and the high-intensity explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort, investigators said.

Located in the Muslim-majority Dhauj village on a 76-acre campus, the university is now at the centre of a multi-agency probe after educated professionals associated with it were found to be acting under the instructions of Pakistan-backed handlers. Authorities are investigating how the private university allegedly became a safe haven for radicalised individuals operating under a terror network.

According to its website, Al-Falah University was established under the Haryana Private Universities Act and traces its origins to an engineering college set up in 1997. It earned an ‘A’ grade accreditation from the NAAC in 2013 and was accorded university status by the Haryana government in 2014. The institution, managed by the Al-Falah Charitable Trust, set up in 1995, also runs the Al-Falah Medical College, affiliated with the same university.

Experts have noted that in its formative years, Al-Falah University attracted minority students as an alternative to Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. The campus, just 30 kilometres from Delhi’s Jamia, houses three colleges — the Al-Falah School of Engineering and Technology, Brown Hill College of Engineering and Technology, and Al-Falah School of Education and Training — along with a 650-bed hospital where free medical care is offered.

The trust is currently chaired by Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui, with Mufti Abdullah Qasimi serving as vice-chairman and Mohammad Wajid as secretary. Prof (Dr) Mohammad Parvez is the registrar, and Dr Bhupinder Kaur Anand serves as the vice-chancellor.

Police conducted searches across the university on Tuesday and questioned several individuals. The crackdown follows the Monday evening blast near the Red Fort metro station that killed 12 people and injured several others. Pulwama-based Dr Mohammad Umar Nabi, suspected to have been driving the explosives-laden Hyundai i20, was an assistant professor at Al-Falah University.

The explosion occurred hours after the arrest of nine individuals — including three doctors associated with the university — and the seizure of nearly 2,900 kilograms of explosives linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind terror networks operating across Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. Among those arrested was Dr Muzammil Ganaie, a faculty member of the university.

With inputs from PTI