By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: In seemingly unending chain of arrest and picking of Muslim youths, particularly those from Azamgarh, in connection with terror blasts in the country, 22-year-old Azamgarh youth Saifur Rahman was picked in Jabalpur on Sunday night from Mumbai-bound Godan Express. The police said he was involved in Jaipur and Ahmedabad blasts last year.
TCN speaks to Saif’s father:
According to the police Indian Mujahideen operative Saifur Rahman planted bombs in Jaipur and Ahmedabad on May 13 and July 26 last year. He was arrested from Jabalpur on Sunday night around 1:30 am by a team of the Anti-Terror Squad of Madhya Pradesh Police. The police said a CJM court in Jaipur had earlier issued an arrest warrant against him in connection with the May 13 blasts.
However, his father refuted the police charges. Talking to TwoCircles.net Dr. Abdur Rahman Ansari, who retired as Head, Zoology Department, Shibli National College, Azamgarh, said regarding the police charges: “This is 100% false. My son never visited Jaipur or Ahmedabad in his life.” Regarding Jaipur court notice he said: “They say the court served notice in May last year but it did not reach us yet. The police never came to us. They never contacted us either.”
Saifur Rahman, who has appeared in recently concluded BA final year examination at Shibli College, boarded Godan Express at Varanasi along with her sister on 12th April. They traveled in AC III tier. Saif was escorting her recently married sister to her in-laws in Mumbai.
Saif’s father told TCN the Bhopal ATS has not yet informed them regarding the arresting of his son in Jabalpur. They got information from news media. “The police, however, called his sister’s husband in Mumbai. The police handed over my daughter to her husband and mother-in-law in Bhopal today at 1 pm. The police have kept Saif in their custody,” Dr Abdur Rahman said.
While the police say Saif is a terrorist and Indian Mujahedeen operative the details provided by them about the circumstances in which he was arrested in the train are interesting.
The police said Saifur Rahman did not offer any resistance and did not have any weapons on him. The police also said he (Saif) did not appear to be on a mission. “He was least prepared when the police zeroed on him,” IG (STF) M S Gupta has been quoted as saying. The police said they had followed a tip-off that Saif had boarded the train from Varanasi.
Meanwhile, his father is preparing to send a letter to Home Secretary, Uttar Pradesh and some central political leaders including Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Dr Ansari said Ulema Council leader Maulana Amir Rashadi is taking up the issue at his own level.