After a harrowing time for almost a year there is a reason for Abdul Wahed and his family to heave a sigh of relief. The retired teacher from Hyderabad, and the father of the suspected terrorist Abdul Shahid alias Bilal is now looking forward to release of his youngest son, Abdul Majeed from Charlapally jail. The Andhra Pradesh high court has granted him bail after a protracted legal fight. Abdul Majid who was among the 28 people arrested after last year's serial blasts in Hyderabad, was however booked in other cases including criminal conspiracy.
His second son Abdul Zahed, who was also picked up in connection with the bomb blast in the police task force office in 2005 has also been brought to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam jail after two years providing an opportunity for the family to meet him. "I am confident that sooner or later justice will be done with us. I have been pleading that both Zahed and Majeed are innocent and they are paying a price only for being Shahid's brothers", said Abdul Wahed.
Though Abdul Majeed was picked up in September last year in the aftermath of the blasts in Mecca Masjid and Lumbini Park last year, he was not charged in connection with the blast. Instead a case of anti national activities was booked against him Majeed was subjected to narco analysis test twice in Bangalore as the police suspected his hand in the blast. But as nothing came out of it, no case in connection with the blasts was booked against him.
Abdul Zahed was however charged with helping a suspected Bangladeshi terrorist in suicide bombing of the task force office in Begumpet in October last year in which the bomber and a police constable were killed. Now Zahed along with other accused has been brought back to Hyderabad as the hearing of the case has begun in the Nampally criminal court.
Abdul Wahed's family, residing in Moosaram Bagh area is under tremendous pressure as his son Abdul Shahid went missing in 2003 and later his name cropped in police records as an operative of the Inter Services Intelligence backed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami. The Hyderabad police suspects his involvement in several cases of terrorist attacks including the attack on task force office and last year's blasts.
Abdul Wahed expressesed his ignorance about the whereabouts of Shahid, "I don't know any thing about him or where he is. It is the police which keeps saying he is Pakistan or Bangladesh. Again it is the same police which says he was dead. We have no contact with him for the last several years."
Wahed was referring to the reports in media that Shahid along with another person was shot dead by some masked men in Karachi on August 30 last year.
The pressure has taken its toll on the family in other ways. Abdul Wahed's eldest daughter died of heart attack last year after the arrest of Abdul Majeed. "The police has been harassing and mentally torturing my family for no crime. My family is destroyed completely. I am leaving myself and my family in the hands of Allah. He will do justice", said Abdul Wahed.
© 2024 Rediff.com -