‘IS cell’ bust in Ratlam sets off turmoil in five families

Rehana, the mother of Imran Muhammad Sharif Khan, the alleged leader of the five, says all they have been told is that their son was involved in “anti-national activities”. She refuses to open the door to her house in Mohan Nagar locality of this communally sensitive town.

Read: First Islamic State ‘module’ busted, 5 held in MP: Police

When she met him briefly after the arrest, Rehana says, Imran told her, “Mein bilkul bekasoor hoon. Allah jaanta hai maine kuchh nahin kiya (I am completely innocent. Allah knows I did nothing).”

Rehana says her younger son Irfan, who also spent some time abroad like Imran, is now too scared to come home. She claims she doesn’t know where he is. Accusing police of ruining their lives, the mother adds, “We were a happy family till Imran’s arrest. We have now left it to the almighty.”

Father Mohammed Sharif, an employee of Rural Engineering Services, a state government department, says his son just wanted to live by the tenets of Shariah. A cupboard in the house has only religious books, which Imran read, he says. “Police searched through each of them.”

Salim with his son Wasim’s photograph. (Express Photo by: Milind Ghatwai)

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Missing from Imran’s computer table is the CPU, which police took away along with his laptop. They also took away all their mobiles, the father adds, including those broken and the old ones without batteries.

“Had he been involved, would I have let police search the house and touch the religious books?” Sharif asks.

Intelligence agencies, however, say Imran, who did not finish his BBA at the local Royal College, was the leader of the alleged IS jihadi cell, also including Rizwan Khan, Wasim Khan, Anwar Kureshi and Mazhar Israil Khan. Except for Mazhar, the other four have been arrested.

A senior police officer says the five separated from Ahl al-Suffah, a local lslamic proselytizing and charity group. The group was under watch as some of its members were allegedly involved in communal riots.

Contesting the police version, Imran’s family says he earlier used to be in real estate but, after about a year, had given it up saying it involved lying and collecting “haraam ka paisa”. The brothers then set up a shop selling surgical instruments.

Unlike the four others who are well-off, Anwar Kureshi, who is in his early 20s, is poor and lived in a one-room house. His family and neighbours say he turned himself in days ago, though his arrest was only recorded this week.

Refusing to acknowledge her own son, his mother says, “Hamare to khane ke lale hain (We struggle for two meals).”

The family says Anwar worked as a labourer while his father drives a tempo. Police did not search his house, but of his in-laws. “They even removed the flooring at one place,” says a woman, speaking from behind a partly open door. “They did not find anything.”

Family members of Imran, Rizwan and Wasim also contest the time, place and circumstances of their arrests.

“They blindfolded him outside the clinic of an Indore-based doctor who was treating him for migraine, and drove straight to Bhopal on April 18. They questioned him for days before declaring his arrest on April 24,” says Irfan, the father of 32-year-old Rizwan.

Rizwan’s wife Shaeesta and their three-year-old were with him for the treatment, and they filed a mission person’s complaint.

Shaeesta says Rizwan, who dropped out of school after Class VIII, neither had a criminal record nor ever picked up a fight. Irfan adds Rizwan didn’t know how to operate computers and used a basic phone without Internet.

The family also says that while Rizwan was friendly with Imran and the two often chatted into the night, Rizwan was hardly likely to have got into anything illegal. Irfan notes that he owns 100 bighas of land, earning enough from agriculture, and that he visited Dubai for a vacation recently.

Police, however, are interested in the trips Rizwan made. Along with Imran Khan, Mazhar and another Imran Khan (who works in Kuwait), Rizwan had visited Lucknow, Dehradun and Panipat among other places late in March. Police say the visits were not for sightseeing.

The parents of 29-year-old Wasim Khan say police picked him up from Lucknow, where he had gone to “purchase items needed for electrical fittings”.

Wasim, another school dropout, having studied only till Class VII, worked as an electrician and had shifted to Bhawani Mandi with his wife and daughter around six months ago. The last time he visited Ratlam was when he lost his uncle.

Wasim’s father Salim Khan worked as a driver in Saudi Arabia from 1988 to 2008. He now drives trucks and was not home when police came searching on April 15.

Salim also points out that while police sought Wasim’s custody saying they had to take him to Lucknow for further investigation, he is still in Ratlam. “I have been taking food to him daily.”

Wasim’s wife Rehnuma says she wasn’t allowed to see his face during her last visit.

The family of Mazhar Israil Khan — the only one not arrested — owns the sprawling Glamour Tailors, one of Ratlam’s best known shops, on College Road. They live in a large two-storey house in Anand Colony.

Mazhar, 27, was also enrolled for BBA in Royal College but dropped out like Imran. The family says they don’t know if they were classmates or knew each other. Mazhar now helps father Israil run their clothes shop along with his younger brother, a fashion design graduate.

Israil points out that Mazhar was picked up by the ATS, Bhopal, on April 15 too but let off after questioning. “Will the ATS let someone go if he was involved?” he says, adding Mazhar wasn’t subjected to “third degree” in custody.

While Israil spent five years in Saudi Arabia, he says none of his four children, including two married daughters, has ever travelled abroad. “They are not required to,” he says.

Mazhar’s brother adds that he did not own a computer, while Israil hastens to say that none of his sons is very religious. “Most of our friends and clients are Hindus.”

The Rashtriya Ulema Council has been protesting against the “indiscriminate” arrests. Syed Anwar Ali, its Madhya Pradesh spokesman, said police arrest Muslim youths only to please a particular community.