By U SUDHAKAR REDDY
Hyderabad, May 19: Mohammed Abdul Shahed, alias Bilal, the man on whom the police seeks to pin the blame for Friday's blast at Mecca Masjid, seems like two persons.
The police claims 39-year-old Shahed is Andhra Pradeshs most wanted terrorist and has asked the CBI to ask for an Interpol red alert. He is believed to be operating from Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. The police claims he is the head of operations in South India for Jaish-e-Mohammed and a key operative for Bangladesh's Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami (Huji).
A welder while he was in Moosarambagh in Hyderabad, Shahed, the police claims, is a bombmaker who trains youth from Hyderabad in terror camps in the Sunderbans and Bandarbans and Chittagong forests in Bangladesh. His main area of operation is said to be Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The police pins practically every major incident on Shahed: the attack on the IISc at Bangalore, the suicide bombing at the Hyderabad task force office in October 2005 and a plot to kill BJP and VHP leaders.
The police claims that Shahed sneaked into India and went to Bidar a few days before the suicide bombing. Shahed's brother Zahed is in jail for alleged involvement in that bombing.
Mohammed Ibrahim, alias Khalid, a classmate of Shahed, is said to be the main conspirator in a plot to kill then state BJP chief N. Indrasena Reddy and was arrested in Secunderabad in 2006. A month ago, the police arrested one Maqsood who reportedly recruited youth for Shahed.
But the picture that his father draws of Shahed is different. Abdul Waheed says Shahed left home five years ago as "the financial situation was not good". He said Shahed is 25 years old, and not 39 as the police believes. "Shahed never did welding work," said Waheed, denying another police claim. At that time he was an intermediate student of Mumtaz College. "He is less than 25 years old now," Shahed's father Wahed said. "We never saw him or spoke to him after he left home. He has never called us or met us," Wahed told this correspondent.
Shahed has six brothers and three sisters. Zahed is in jail in Visakhapatnam, a daughter Hafeez and youngest son Majeed stay with him. "Majeed couldn't continue his studies after Class 10. He is a cellphone mechanic," Wahed said. Of his other sons, Ahad, Samad, Majid and Khaled stay in Saudi Arabia doing ordinary jobs. The family stays near a mosque in Moosrambagh and is very religious. Waheed made all his sons study in Urdu schools. Waheed is a retired teacher and lives on his pension. "We have never discussed jihad in the house. Shahed was a normal, well-behaved youth. I can't believe that he has become a terrorist. I don't believe that he is involved in the Mecca Masjid blast."
"The media and police have been saying so much about him. We don't know what happened to him. Sometimes they said that he was caught in Bangalore and sometimes in Delhi. The police even alleged that we met him in Bidar when he was reportedly here. It is not true. We have not met him. If he had done something wrong, he has to be punished if it is proved," said Waheed. "We are in real trouble for the past three years. Relatives and neighbours are afraid to talk to us because of the police branding of the son," said Waheed
(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Asian Age on May 20th 2007)
Hyderabad, May 19: Mohammed Abdul Shahed, alias Bilal, the man on whom the police seeks to pin the blame for Friday's blast at Mecca Masjid, seems like two persons.
The police claims 39-year-old Shahed is Andhra Pradeshs most wanted terrorist and has asked the CBI to ask for an Interpol red alert. He is believed to be operating from Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. The police claims he is the head of operations in South India for Jaish-e-Mohammed and a key operative for Bangladesh's Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami (Huji).
A welder while he was in Moosarambagh in Hyderabad, Shahed, the police claims, is a bombmaker who trains youth from Hyderabad in terror camps in the Sunderbans and Bandarbans and Chittagong forests in Bangladesh. His main area of operation is said to be Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The police pins practically every major incident on Shahed: the attack on the IISc at Bangalore, the suicide bombing at the Hyderabad task force office in October 2005 and a plot to kill BJP and VHP leaders.
The police claims that Shahed sneaked into India and went to Bidar a few days before the suicide bombing. Shahed's brother Zahed is in jail for alleged involvement in that bombing.
Mohammed Ibrahim, alias Khalid, a classmate of Shahed, is said to be the main conspirator in a plot to kill then state BJP chief N. Indrasena Reddy and was arrested in Secunderabad in 2006. A month ago, the police arrested one Maqsood who reportedly recruited youth for Shahed.
But the picture that his father draws of Shahed is different. Abdul Waheed says Shahed left home five years ago as "the financial situation was not good". He said Shahed is 25 years old, and not 39 as the police believes. "Shahed never did welding work," said Waheed, denying another police claim. At that time he was an intermediate student of Mumtaz College. "He is less than 25 years old now," Shahed's father Wahed said. "We never saw him or spoke to him after he left home. He has never called us or met us," Wahed told this correspondent.
Shahed has six brothers and three sisters. Zahed is in jail in Visakhapatnam, a daughter Hafeez and youngest son Majeed stay with him. "Majeed couldn't continue his studies after Class 10. He is a cellphone mechanic," Wahed said. Of his other sons, Ahad, Samad, Majid and Khaled stay in Saudi Arabia doing ordinary jobs. The family stays near a mosque in Moosrambagh and is very religious. Waheed made all his sons study in Urdu schools. Waheed is a retired teacher and lives on his pension. "We have never discussed jihad in the house. Shahed was a normal, well-behaved youth. I can't believe that he has become a terrorist. I don't believe that he is involved in the Mecca Masjid blast."
"The media and police have been saying so much about him. We don't know what happened to him. Sometimes they said that he was caught in Bangalore and sometimes in Delhi. The police even alleged that we met him in Bidar when he was reportedly here. It is not true. We have not met him. If he had done something wrong, he has to be punished if it is proved," said Waheed. "We are in real trouble for the past three years. Relatives and neighbours are afraid to talk to us because of the police branding of the son," said Waheed
(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Asian Age on May 20th 2007)
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