Bengaluru: A homeopathy doctor, arrested on charges of being an Indian Mujahideen operative, is said to have confessed to terror activities after he was brought face to face with his family members, particularly his wife, in custody, police sources said.
Saleem Ismail Afaq, 36, maintained silence for the first three days after his arrest from a Cox Town flat on January 8. His cousin and MBA student, Abdus Subur, 24, was also arrested along with him. The same day, their alleged associate, scrap dealer Saddam Hussein, 24, was picked up from Bhatkal.
“We made Afaq call up his parents and wife. Conversations with them mellowed him to some extent. Afaq broke down when he met his family, particularly wife and daughter. He then began to confess, explaining in detail his terror activities and other vital issues,” said the police.
Afaq, who married a Pakistan girl in 2005, met members of the terror outfit regularly when he went to Pakistan on the pretext of visiting his in-laws. “Afaq allegedly played a vital role in transporting explosives, building a network and finding youths for jihadi activities besides communicating with Pakistan terror outfits,” police claimed.
On the contrary, Afaq’s advocate Mohammed Sultan, however, refuted the police claim. He said Afaq was never allowed to meet his parents. “I don’t know whether there was a telephone chat. Police have not submitted to the court any document pertaining to the arrest and later investigation, he added.
Earlier the family of a homeopathy doctor, who was arrested by the Bangalore police for being an alleged supplier of explosives to the Indian Mujahideen terror outfit, had alleged that the police have mistaken Dr Syed Ismail Afaque’s communications with his wife’s family in Pakistan as interactions with members of the Indian Mujahideen.
However based on intelligence inputs police raided houses in Bangalore and Bhatkal town and arrested Syed Ismail Afaq, 34, Saddam Hussein, 35, and Abdus Subur, 24, for alleged links to the Indian Mujahideen terror outfit. Police claimed to have found a large quantity of ammonium nitrate, detonators, electronic timer devices, digital circuits, wires, PVC pipes, gel based explosive material and fuel oil at the residence of Abdus Subur, a cousin of Dr Afaque.
One of the allegations brought against Dr Afaque by the police is that he was frequently in touch with some Indian Mujahideen leaders who are based in Karachi. The police had accused Dr Afaque of being the supplier of explosives used by the Indian Mujahideen in many blasts in India.
Speaking during a press meet earlier this month Dr Afaque’s parents Aleem Lanka, 73, and Noorunnisa,71, said that their son a popular homeopathic doctor in his home town of Bhatkal was an innocent man. Afaque was married to a woman Arsala Abeer who hails from Karachi and frequently communicates with her family in Pakistan, his father Aleem said.
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