By Mohd Ismail Khan, Twocircles.net,
Hyderabad: Syed Afaque Iqbal, a resident of Bariyatu near Ranchi in Jharkhand is a computer software engineer by profession. He was arrested by the Gujarat crime branch on 21st June 2011, allegedly from Vadodra railway station in Gujarat. He is said to have been involved in the blasts that took place near Maninagar cross-roads around 6.30 pm on July 26, 2008; when 21 blasts rattled the city of Ahmedabad and killed more than 50 people.
He was charged for attending a terrorist camp in Kerala, and providing shelter to the Indian Mujahideen [IM] operatives Abdu Subhan alias Tauqeer, Abdul Raziq and Mujib Sheikh, when they were on the run after the Ahmedabad blasts. His family claims that these are fake allegations planted to make Afaque a scapegoat in the blasts case. His two elder brothers and an uncle visited Hyderabad recently, where Afaque spent a little over 3 years before the arrest working as a computer engineer in a software company. They were in a hope to find some evidence to help his case. His second elder brother Syed Altaf spoke to TCN on his brother’s case, he said before coming to Hyderabad they had visited Afaque in the Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad where his brother is being put in a high security zone and not being allowed to meet any one. He said that Afaque told them that he was tortured during the interrogation, and that he was not arrested from Vadodra railway station but from his company Everest I.N.C office in Hyderabad on 17 June, that too three days before the official date of arrest.
Then they met his lawyers in Ahmedabad, M.M Sheikh and his junior Khaled Sheikh, the lawyers told them that the cases put on Afaque are not different from other Muslim youths who are languishing in the Sabarmati jail. Then they assured the family that they will do their best to prove Afaque’s innocence. He said after this assurance from the advocates they turned to Hyderabad to visit the house where Afaque was staying at the time of arrest. When they reached Hyderabad his family members tried to contact Mr. Prakash who was the colleague of Afaque in his office, to get to know which place Afaque was staying at the time of arrest.
Thus through Prakash they reached the house and contacted the house owner to collect the belongings of Afaque which were left out in the room, but the house owner demanded them to get permission from the local police inspector to do so. He said after Afaque’s arrest the CID’s of crime branch were frequent visitors to his home and that the CID officials had told him not to hand over the belongings to any one until the family member’s meet the crime branch officials. In spite of fear of intimidation from the police the family members agreed to meet the crime branch officials, but the officials asked the house owner not to hand over the belongings to the family as the NIA is yet to carry out a search there. His family members were shocked to know that even after the 6 months of arrest the NIA officials had not yet searched his belongings. His brother thinks that it was just another biased tactics from the part of police officials to stop the family members from taking Afaque’s belongings into possession.
Afaque’s elder brother Syed Tariq Iqbal told TCN that Afaque might have been arrested by deliberate or involuntary confusion, he told us that Afaque visited Mumbai in 2006 to find a job along with his childhood friend Manzar Imam who according to police is absconding and hiding somewhere in Ranchi. In Mumbai they stayed in the room of one Danish Riyaz who was a far relative of Manzar. At that time Afaque actually had plans of finding a job in some gulf countries, so after some time when he failed to find the right job in Mumbai; he returned back to Ranchi to pursue further studies in software programming. On his return from Mumbai, the city got rocked by the blasts; Danish Riyaz and Manzar Imam were arrested by the police under suspicion and got released after some days. Soon after the incident Manzar returned back to Ranchi. Later Afaque reached Hyderabad in march 2008 in search of a job and worked for a little over 3 years there, as software engineer in three different companies; at first he worked in ACS Technologies where he worked for 2 ½ months, then he worked in APEX Co Vantage from October 2008 to March 2011 as a junior network administrator, then he joined EVEREST INC and worked there for 2 ½ months till he was arrested.
His brother told TCN that in 2009 a police officer from CID Ranchi visited their home and started questioning them about Afaque. They told everything on Afaque regarding what he is doing, where he is working and as such didn’t hide anything from the officer. The officer revealed that Afaque’s name is under scanner since December 2010, as the local media and news papers started reporting that two IM operatives involved in Ahmedabad bomb blasts are hiding in Jharkhand. Next day local media news channels and newspapers started showing photos of Afaque under the nickname ‘Danish Riyaz’. He told us that his brother’s nickname was accidentally ‘Danish’ but only the family members called him by that name. Then the media started assembling in front of their home, some of them even spoke to Afaque (Danish) on the phone as if like they were conducting an interview.
On 17th December 2010 one cop from Ranchi crime branch visited their residence and started asking the same old questions, the police harassment and questioning continued for months. Then on 12th April 2011 two officials – one from NIA Hyderabad and another from Ranchi crime branch along with the officer in charge of Briyatu police station came to their residence and started collecting details about Afaque. The family members totally cooperated and provided whole details on Afaque, including the place of his accommodation. From their residence, the NIA officer called his superior in NIA headquarters in Hyderabad, DSP Mohd Tajuddin. Mr. Tajuddin spoke to the eldest brother of Afaque, Syed Tariq Iqbal and advised him to ask Afaque to meet him in the NIA office in Hyderabad.
On 15th April 2011 Afaque met DSP Mohd Tajuddin in the NIA office. After meeting him, Afaque called his brother Altaf and told him that, NIA officials interrogated him for several hours and asked questions on Danish Riyaz and his relationship with Manzar Imam. Then they took his photos in different angles, recorded his voice and asked him to write down each and every detail regarding his stay in Hyderabad, since 2008.
Syed Afaque Iqbal
Afaque visited Ranchi on 31st May 2011 to attend his sister’s marriage, after his stay back home in Ranchi for three days, he left to Hyderabad to get back to his job, his family members too without any hesitation allowed him to go back to Hyderabad because they believed that nothing unfortunate would happen because he was completely cooperating with the NIA.
Finally on 17th June 2011 family lost contact with Afaque, his phone number got switched off. That was the day when Afaque was exactly taken into illegal custody by the Gujarat crime branch. Then he was taken to Vadodra and his arrest was registered there. The family members came to know about the arrest only on 22nd June 2011 when the national news channels started showing his photo along with false details on his arrest. Altaf told TCN that he was shocked by the way; the police and media started presenting stories on his brother, as fugitive and absconding terrorist who was captured by the police.
He was at utter dismay to observe the illegitimate nexus of NIA officials and Gujarat police. He said his brother is innocent, never harmed any one and didn’t have hatred towards any community in his life. He strongly believes that Afaque is just another victim of biased policing and media propaganda against Muslims. But he seems confident that one day they will prove all allegations put against him as false. The police officials took 6 months after arrest to file a charge sheet in the court because they didn’t have any concrete and corroborative evidence to file a case. Altaf said that fight for justice is going to be real hard and painstaking long task, but they want to really fight it till the end for their dear one.