By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
“He never spoke about killing himself, I can never accept that my son who was deeply religious, can end his life in a ‘Haram’ (prohibited) way, saying that my son has committed suicide, is like someone swearing on me.”
This is how Mohammed Abdul Sattar expressed his grief when asked about his son Mohammed Abdul Razzaq alias Masood. 38 year old Razzaq, a terror accused allegedly committed suicide on October 10, supposedly due to police harassment.
“Earlier they used to kill Muslim youths directly in encounter, now they are killing them by continuous mental harassment, it is a slow poison killing,” says Abdul Sattar, almost breaking into tears. He was firm in reiterating that police and intelligence agencies (both Indian and international) are responsible for his youngest son’s unexpected demise, as they kept harassing him constantly.
Hyderabad police is still tight lipped:
But Hyderabad police is still tight lipped on the suicide case. They refused vehemently that they were harassing Razzaq, but at the same time, they are not making public anything related to the case.
TCN tried to contact investigating officer, i.e. police inspector of Hamayu Nagar and the ACP of Asif Nagar, but both were not reachable.
With each passing day the reason for his extreme step is getting shrouded in mystery, as police is unwilling to give details. Razzaq’s case is deeply complicated by the changing stance and contradicting statements of Indian security agencies.
Abdul Sattar, father of Abdul Razzaq. [TCN Photo]
Background:
According to his family Razzaq did graduation from his home town in Nizamabad and then left for Dubai in 2000 and was working as a manager in a hotel there. His name first cropped up in 2004 as one of the ‘accused’ in the charge-sheet of Sai Baba temple blast of 2002.
He was arrested in Iran in 2005. His family claim that he went to Iran via Dubai for some visa related issue, and there he was arrested as he was already black listed by the Indian Government.
But national security agencies for long claimed that Razzaq was chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Dubai and he was arrested when he entered Iran through Afghanistan, to fight in Iraq against American troops.
After 5 months in Iranian prison, Razzaq was arrested at Delhi airport when he was deported back to India. Next day Delhi Police showed him as arrested from Jamia Nagar area of New Delhi, where they claimed that he was hiding. Huge haul of weapons were also shown to be confiscated.
Every major English newspaper carried that story. Telugu newspapers in Andhra Pradesh had already passed the verdict: ‘terrorist in town.’
His father showed Xerox copies of letters of Razzaq sent from Iranian prison to refute the Delhi police claims about his arrest in Delhi.
Letter sent from Iranian prison.
His father claims that Razzaq had told him that during his captivity by Delhi police, he was interrogated by C.I.A and MOSSAD along with Indian intelligence agencies. “In Delhi intelligence agencies used to torture him like an animal,” his father alleged.
After three months of incarceration in Delhi’s prison, his custody was taken by Hyderabad Police as he was already a ‘wanted’ man in 2002 Sai Baba temple blast which had killed 2 people and left four injured.
His family in Nizamabad urban town claimed that they were never informed or questioned before 2005 by the Hyderabad Police in connection with the Sai Baba temple blast case.
From 2005 to 2009 Razzaq was lodged in Charlapally jail in Hyderabad and Rajhmundry jail in Andhra region. He was Narco tested twice during that period.
His family alleges that due to extreme mental harassment and torture that he went through in prisons, he had become mentally unstable. In fact, at one time he was shifted to Erragada Mental Hospital.
Trial court allowed him conditional bail as police on different occasions failed to present him before the court. But when he was finally out in 2009, according to his father, he could barely make sense of things. His treatment was going on with different psychiatrists in Hyderabad.
News in Telgu announcing Razzaq’s arrest
But even as Razzaq was out on conditional bail and ordered not to leave Hyderabad, his name cropped up in 2002 American Cultural Center attack, and Mumbai 26/11 attacks.
Razzaq also found a mention in Praveen Swami of The Hindu in an article on Dec 2009, ‘Ties that bind: Lashkar and the global jihad.’ According to Swami, Razzaq met Muzammil Bhat of LeT, who allegedly supervised over the training of 26/11 attackers in Dubai before Mumbai attacks. But the fact is that Razzaq was in Indian prisons since 2005.
Swami wrote: “Masood’s story helps to understand the complex ties that bind the Lashkar and the global jihadist movement,” and also went on to track Razzaq’s history as an Al-Qaeda operative.
“After his release he was in deep mental disturbance as his name was dragged into two other terror cases. He used to tell me that IB officers often visit me; they are pressurizing me to become a government’s witness or to implicate an innocent youth in a terror case. I cannot do this, I cannot destroy life of an innocent,” says Sattar.
Abdul Sattar says that IB people were of opinion that Razzaq was an international Jihadist and wanted to use him as their mole, which Razzaq resisted till his end.
Even with all this odds in his life, and the mental pressure he was going through, his family is still not ready to accept that Razzaq can commit suicide. His elder brother, Abdul Muqeet who is a counselor in Nizamabad Urban town, says that Razzaq’s future was settled and he could not end his life at this juncture.
“During 2005 to 2009 or even in 2010 it was the time when his life appeared to be at dead end, but he fought back, and lived his life with utmost patience. Now he was planning to get married and had already bought a room to open an internet café near his home town. When everything in his life seems to be getting established, why would he commit suicide?” asks Muqeet.
Razzaq’s family has a list of doubts about his suicide. His nephew Mohammad Ommair who works in Hyderabad and was one of the first relatives to arrive at the suicide scene says that he saw the suicide note (police has still not made the content public), and he is of the opinion that the suicide note is like one of the articles he wrote about the harassment of Muslim youths by police.
Razzaq was pursuing journalism from Maulana Azad national Urdu University and use to write articles in Urdu. Some of them were even published in Siasat Urdu daily.
Omair claims that in the note which police found in his room, there was no mention of him committing suicide. It was just an article of the harassment of Muslim youths, he argues. His suspicions do not end here. “His clothes were clean and pressed, and he was wearing his slippers. As far as I know, if a person shakes his legs desperately in the proses of hanging, how come his slippers were still there on his legs,” he poses the question.
His family whines that police has not handed them the suicide note, or the postmortem report, even two weeks after his death.
Abdul Qadeer runs a small kirana shop in a three floored building where Razzaq stayed for one year and subsequently committed suicide. He is also the landlord of that building.
He found Razzaq a simple man who used to perform prayers regularly, “Only the next day when I read the newspaper, I got to know that he was accused in bomb blasts, I would have never given him the room on rent if I had any idea about it,” told this reporter, scared that the ‘suicide’ occurred at his house.
According to Qadeer, he was a soft spoken man but he appeared confused on some occasions. He recalled an incident, “four months back he called me and said that he got blood cancer, he seemed worried, then again after two days he called me again and inform that village doctors has not diagnosed him properly, he was just having a fever.” Qadeer added, “Yes at times he felt little disordered.”
Speaking on getting news of Razzaq’s suicide, Qadeer said, “Razzaq left one small paper stuffed in the main gate, in which it was written ‘check my room and inform Qadeer bhai’ in English and in Urdu.
One of the bachelors who live in the house saw that note at 2:30 P.M. He went to check his room and found Razzaq hanging, and then he informed me. I immediately came and peeped into the door which was open. I then informed his family and police.”
Qadeer is of the opinion that Razzaq might have committed suicide in the afternoon; as the man who had found the ‘chit’ at door had not seen it at 10.00 A.M. when he left for work, but saw it only on his return at 2.30 P.M.
Abdul Qadeer, however, denies that police or intelligence agencies used to visit him. “If they used to, then I would have asked him to leave the very next day.”
Coming to terms with the demise of son:
Razzaq’s family is meanwhile trying to come to terms with his inconceivable and sad demise. But his father has list of complaints against the Muslim community. “Not a single Muslim leader condemned the suicide of my son, no Urdu newspaper followed his story, all are tight lipped, I don’t know why they are so scared,” said Abdul Sattar in a anguish tone.
While Sattar was continuing, his elder son Muqeet cut him short, “Forgive my father, he is still delusional that whole Muslim community will stand behind us or fight for us, things are changed no one wants to speak on this issues anymore.”
Razzaq’s family is pleading that an independent enquiry on the reason behind Abdul Razzaq’s alias Massod’s death, because the family believes the picture is still far from clear, as they fear some international players are also involved.
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Bomb blast accused committed suicide due to police harassment