‘Mamma don’t worry… I am clean, they will leave me’
Kin of Farhan Shaikh arrested for ‘ISIS links’ say they haven’t spoken to him after he was deported back.
4 min read
Farhan Shaikh, 24, was handed over to NIA after he was deported. Deepak Joshi
THE WORD ‘computer’ and the ignorance of the workings of the virtual world is a common thread running through the families of persons suspected to have been linked to the ISIS by the police. The family of Farhan Rafiq Shaikh (24), one of the three persons deported from the Gulf on charges of being linked to the ISIS, appears to have a story similar to that of the kin of Mudabbir Shaikh — another Mumbra resident arrested for alleged linkage to ISIS. His kin saw him spending long hours in front of the computer but had no clue what he was upto. On July 2, 2015, he was picked up by the police in Dubai on charges of being linked to the ISIS and was deported on January 29.
“Now, sometimes he would sit on the computer and be on his mobile phone. However, we don’t know what he did on it,” Mehrunnisa Shaikh, 55, Farhan’s maternal grandmother said at their residence. Farhan’s sister-in-law, who is also present is however quick to add, “We never had an internet connection though.”
She realises the importance of the statement. Majority of the ISIS radicalisation which is believed to have happened using online video, literature and internet, has become a medium for recruitment. Farhan soon shifted to Dubai along with his cousins after he got a job there.
“Till the time he was here, he would go to Somaiya College — where he pursed science — come home, go down for his five time prayers and run some domestic errands. He was also pursuing a computer hardware course,” says Mehrunnisa, who has been looking after Farhan since he was two years old after he lost his mother to cancer that led to his father leaving them.
“His grandmother, who is my sister, also passed away. I was all he had and I took care of him. And he was always grateful for that. Sometimes when after work, he came home late, he would never wake me up to ask for food. Sometimes, he would eat cold food. Then when my health took a beating, he took up the job of cooking food and washing utensils upon himself. He really took good care of me,” Mehrunnisa told The Indian Express.
During his second year at Somaiya College, his cousins called him to Dubai after they got a job there. He left for the country in late 2013. Since then, he had been residing with the families of Mehrunnisa’s sons there. “He loved playing with their children. He would also show them cartoons on the internet because of which the children loved him. Ever since, he was taken by the cops. The children have been asking about Farhan chachu (uncle) as they would call him,” further said Mehrusina.
She said, “Three months after his arrest, he would call me up and say “mamma don’t take tension. I am clean. They will leave me. I will come soon”. On January 4, he last called up his family saying that he was being sent to India within two weeks.” On Friday, he along with two others was deported to India and handed over to NIA that currently has his custody.
“A team of NIA had visited us on Saturday. They asked us a few questions about him and told us not to worry. They asked us to pay the charges against him be wrong. They were very well behaved,” says Farhan’s sister-in-law.
“We have not been able to talk to him ever since he came to India. Somehow, we just want him to know we are there for him. Woh himmat na har jaye kahin (He shouldn’t lose hope),” she says.
mohamed.thaver@expressindia.com
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