A few days after the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran, with the killing of its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Mohd Javed, a cleric at a mosque in Nahal village of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, watched and shared videos of speeches made by Khamenei.
On March 12, Javed was arrested along with five others.
“Where is it written that we cannot watch Khamenei’s videos? Police told us they found chats on Javed’s phone… but all we know is that he used the word talwar (sword). How is that a crime?” says a villager.
As per the Ghaziabad Police, however, the crime of the six – all belonging to the entirely Muslim village of Nahal, with a population of 22,500 – is much more serious. They accuse Javed, 45; Mohd Savez, 20; Mohd Junaid, 23; Mohd Fardin, 22; Ikram Ali, 36; and Mohd Fazru, 48, of being in touch with members of the banned Jaish-e- Mohammad and seeking to join it, and of using social media to “spread anti-national content and radicalise others”.
They claim to have seized mobile phones as evidence.
Barring Ikram, who is a lawyer at district court in Ghaziabad, Junaid, who works as an assistant at the same court and Javed, who is a cleric, all others are in irregular jobs. Masuri gram pradhan Tassawar Ali says Fazru has a small cart in which he transports scraps, Fardin is a labourer and Savez owns a small kirana shop.
At Nahal village, with houses that are badly in need of paint, there is a hush, marked by disbelief. Men stand in clusters, women rush by, and from terraces, half-open windows or from behind iron doors, faces appear only to quickly pull back. Almost no one claims to know any of the six.
Savez’s brother who does not want to be identified, and who is temporarily running the Zeeshan Kirana store owned by Savez, also brushes away all queries.
A neighbour, who lives just 50 metres away, says: “Savez was the last person we thought would be arrested in a case like this and be called a terrorist.”
Savez’s sister, who also doesn’t want to be identified, says three of her brothers, all elder to Savez, are in good jobs. “One of them is employed with the Indian Air Force, another is an engineer and a third lives in America.” Savez was more religiously inclined, stopped studies after Class 10 and hoped to become a maulana, she adds.
She says police picked up Savez from his shop around 4.30 pm on March 12. “No one had any idea what he had done. When we asked police, they did not say anything,” she says. The arrest of the others followed.
Villagers say Ikram was arrested around 10:30 pm on March 12, Fardin was arrested when he came to the police station to enquire about Savez, and Fazru was held after he went to get his phone from police. A cousin of Junaid’s says police first arrested his brother and brother-in-law, and put pressure on the family to hand him over. “Junaid’s father thought that it was an investigation and he will be free soon, and so sent him.”
A lawyer who works with Ikram, Mohammad Chand Alam, says he has been practising for over a decade. “When Ikram was arrested, a group of senior lawyers gave a memorandum to the Ghaziabad Police Commissioner saying he was not involved in any anti-national activities,” Alam said.
The president of the Ghaziabad Bar Association, Bramhadev Tyagi, confirms this, adding that Ikram was among the senior-most lawyers in the district court.
Ikram’s house in Nahal village is locked.
District Commissioner of Police, Ghaziabad (Rural), Surendra Nath Tiwari calls Savez “self-motivated”. “We have recovered his mobile phone and have evidence against him. We are questioning him,” Tiwari says, calling Savez and Javed the main accused.
On Javed, the DCP adds: “His uncle was wanted in an incident of violence and fled to Pakistan. We have found that Javed has been in touch with him. We are investigating the case further.” Javed is the only one among the six who does not live in Nahal any more, having shifted to Masuri, where he is maulana at a mosque.
Earlier, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ghaziabad, Lipi Nagaich said Instagram chats showed Savez was in touch with a Jaish-e-Mohammad member called Hamza. “Hamza shared some videos of the outfit with them, and the six were planning to join it. They also used the Signal application (to ensure secure exchanges),” Nagaich told The Indian Express.
Tiwari claims they stumbled upon the six during routine surveillance. “We were informed that some men of Nahal village were involved in anti-national activities. When police began an investigation, the names of the six accused came to light.”
They have been booked at Masuri Police Station under Sections of endangering unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country, promoting enmity and criminal conspiracy of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The pradhan says he has made several visits to the police station to enquire about the men. “We always get into trouble. Even if some people are responsible, all of us are blamed,” he adds.
Nahal village, to which all the 6 arrested belong. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha) 
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