By IANS
Bangalore : The family of Mohammed Haneef, an Indian doctor held in Australia as a terror suspect, is eagerly waiting to hear from him, after one of his colleagues, who was also detained, was freed.
Haneef’s mother Qurratulain, wife Firdous and sister Sumayya said they were desperately waiting to hear from Haneef or at least from Indian officials in Australia or Delhi.
“All the information we have is from the media,” his mother said. However, Firdous, an IT engineering graduate, Tuesday received a call from the Indian High Commission in Canberra to ascertain that she was indeed his wife.
The family’s hopes were raised after Haneef’s colleague, held following information provided by Haneef, was released Tuesday.
The last call Haneef, 27, made to his family was on Monday when he said he would be home Tuesday night to see his newborn and his sister’s baby too.
Haneef, a doctor at Brisbane’s Gold Coast Hospital, is the son of a schoolteacher in Karanataka’s Chickmagalur district. He was detained while he was on his way to India to, as his family says, to see his child born on June 26. He is suspected of having links to with the attempted car bomb attack in Glasgow.
Police in Bangalore are now making discreet enquiries with Haneef’s neighbours, relatives and classmates to learn more about him.
All that the authorities have been able to ferret about Haneef is that he was a loner, a religious person who did namaz five times daily and father of a three-week-old girl.
Intelligence officials say they haven’t yet come to a conclusion on the possibility of Haneef having links with terrorist groups.
“We are waiting for details of the interrogation that Haneef is undergoing in Australia to further probe the matter here,” an intelligence official told IANS.
Haneef went to an Urdu medium school till Class 7 and then shifted to a government high school – both in Mudigere village in Chickmagalur. He did his pre-university course from Ujire in the coastal Dakshina Kannada district.
Haneef completed his medicine from Dr B.R. Ambedkar Medical College in Bangalore where he mingled with very few classmates. He had a good academic record and passed with a first class in the first three years of the medical degree course.