By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: It’s afternoon and Obaid’s house is surrounded by a horde of media, 10-15 journalists quiz Obaid’s mother who is already in a state of shock due to the arrest of her eldest child, unable to speak even few minutes in front of the cameras. The responsibility to handle the restless press fall on the grandmother.
21-year old Obaid ur Rahman was arrested on 30th August from Hyderabad and shifted to Bangalore on 31st night, is being declared by the police as Harkat ul Jihad Al-Islami (HuJI) militant, and the Hyderabad link to the 11 persons arrested from Bangalore including a senior journalist from Deccan Herald, and a DRDO scientist on the charges of plotting to assassinate journalists and leaders.
Obaid ur Rahman’s parents are vehemently denying any link of Obaid to Bangalore, “He never visited Bangalore in his whole life, having links there with some strangers is an imaginary claim by the police,” said Obaid’s grandmother Tahera Khatoon.
Grandmother (left) and mother (right) fielded media questions today about the arrest of Obaidur Rahman
Obaid who lost his father at the age of 17, is an Asthma patient. “He requires medicine every 2 hours, we don’t know if police are providing him proper medicines. He cannot survive for long if he doesn’t take the medicine every 2 hours.” Tahera Khatoon wonders, “how can a boy with such serious health problems could involve in a conspiracy to kill powerful men?”
Later in the day Bangalore central crime branch conducted a press conference on the arrest of Obaid. In the press conference police said Obaid had links with the 11 alleged terrorists arrested from Bangalore and Hubli. And he was planning to assassinate BJP counselors and leaders in Hyderabad.
Obaidur Rahman is final year Computer Science student.
Recent claims of Bangalore police have confused Obaid’s family. They failed to understand if Obaid was planning to attack local BJP leaders here in Hyderabad then he should have been arrested by the local police and cases should have been booked here. Why in the world Bangalore police travelled all the way here to arrest him in the cases which were local.
Syeda Kauser Sultana, Obaid’s mother said, “I think Hyderabad Police has sold all his authority to the police of other states, police from other states like, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka are coming freely and arresting Muslims youths here in the name of fighting terrorism.”
“They arrested my son without informing us, without showing any warrant; he was picked up from streets by another state’s police. They didn’t even inform us till next day when he was shifted to Bangalore. This is not the right way in which police is functioning,” said the distraught mother.
Residents of Gulshan Iqbal colony where Obaid used to stay remember him as a boy with good character who never got into fights or any trouble. From stationary shopkeepr to the owner of Kirana store near his house said they never found anything suspicious about the young man. According to them Obaid was religious man with good characters. Family members of Obaid claim that he does not have any criminal record anywhere prior to this arrest.
Obaid, a final year student of Bachelors in Computer Science in a local college, is the eldest of four siblings.
Family members of Obaid are demanding that he should be immediately shifted to Hyderabad as he does not have any case in Bangalore. Family is of the opinion that if he is shifted to Hyderabad it will be easy for them to provide him some legal help. Kauser Sultana said it is the duty of Andhra Pradesh’s Congress government to bring his son back to Hyderabad.
Obaid’s family members were also disturbed by the news item appearing in the local news and mainstream media. His grandmother said he has been declared ‘ISI Ugrvadi’ by Telugu media; English media is calling him HuJI militant, blindly believing the police version. Family fears that irresponsible reporting of mainstream media will hamper his legal trial in the long run.
Obaid’s family was deeply saddened to see Obaid’s photo frequently being telecasted in CNN IBN English news channel while showing the report of arrests of Muslim youths from Bangalore, Hubli, Hyderabad and Nanded on the charges of being HuJI members. Family is planning to take legal action against the news channel.