Wedding with no celebrations caps torturous year for 4 Kalyan families

KALYAN-DOMBIVLI: It is almost a year from the day the four Kalyan youths left home, and while one of them is back, another is reported to be dead and the other two have not called home for quite some time.
On Wednesday, the family of Shaheem Tanki, who is said to have died while with ISIS in Iraq or Syria, held his elder brother Farjan’s wedding. It was a low-key affair and the families of the other three youths were not invited.
The families of the two who have not called for long still cling on to hope. They say that if government agencies adopt a humanitarian outlook towards the case of the lone man to return, Areeb Majeed, and release him, the other two might come back.
The families say the youths were misguided by the ISIS and were doing odd jobs in Iraq.
“In a meeting with us last year, home minister Rajnath Singh had assured all possible help to bring the four youths back and deal with the case in a humanitarian manner as the four were misled,” a cousin of Fahad Shaikh said. “Almost a year has passed and investigative agencies are unnecessarily harassing Areeb by treating his case like that of a terrorist.”
He said that at least now that the chargesheet had been filed and the investigation completed, his bail should not be opposed. “His coming home from jail will spur the two surviving youths to come back,” he said.
Majeed’s family is trying to overcome the trauma and his father, Ejaz, has started going to his clinic in Ghas Bazar.
Aman Tandel’s parents are still in shock. His mother talks to his clothes at home.
Shaikh’s family stopped getting calls from him in March. In his last call, he had informed about Tanki’s death and said he was happy with the ISIS.