IOCL man held for ‘IS links’: ‘My son is a patriot, would never go against nation’

“He said he had been arrested and asked me to inform his parents. No one should have to hear something like this from their husband. I didn’t even know what he had done,” says Yasmeen.

Even as the ATS continues to interrogate Sirajuddin, a manager at the Indian Oil Corporation here, his family is in a state of shock, disbelief and denial.

According to Yasmeen, Sirajuddin is a “very religious” man, but never had any radical ideas. From helping his neighbours in Bangalore — where he was first posted — to taking a bleeding accident victim to hospital, she knows him as a kind man. “He would lend his car to neighbours to drop their children to school if it rained. You ask anyone who knew him. They will all vouch for him,” she says.

“We used to watch reports on Al Jazeera about the IS. He would always condemn terrorism,” she adds.

After spending Eid at Gulbarga, Yasmeen went to her parents’ place in Bangalore as she was due to deliver her child. During her stay in Jaipur, too, Yasmeen never found anything suspicious about Sirajuddin.

“My baby, born just a month ago, has severe chest infection and was in the ICU till a week ago. The doctors have advised me against taking him to a colder place. That is why I haven’t been able to go to Jaipur yet,” she says.

“But we keep reading all sorts of things in newspapers. My heart sinks when I think about what he must be going through,” she breaks down while talking.

Sirajuddin’s father Mohammad Sarvar, a retired agriculture department official, had to leave for Jaipur at 2 am on Friday after being told by Yasmeen about his son’s arrest. “My younger son and I left for Hyderabad and took a flight to Jaipur from there. We couldn’t meet him when we were there. I just saw him from a distance,” he says.

“Woh pakka watanparast hai (he is a patriot). You ask anyone here in Gulbarga or anyone who knows him. He would never go against the nation. We didn’t raise him that way,” says the 65-year-old.

After completing his MTech, Sirajuddin had job offers from Tata Consultancy Services and IOCL, but he chose the latter, says his brother Mohammad Riazuddin. “We don’t believe bhaiya did anything wrong. It must be some misunderstanding,” says Riaz, who has just finished his BE and is looking for a job.

Sirajuddin, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act following information from the NIA about his alleged suspicious online activity, is in police remand till December 21. The ATS claims Sirajuddin had been propagating “IS ideology” using social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, and instigating Muslim boys and girls to join the terrorist organisation.

Yasmeen remembers her husband working too hard at the IOCL, often going out of his way to finish the work of his colleagues. “In a government job, people don’t really work. I would ask him why he worked so much when no one else bothered. The sales at the Jaipur office doubled since he joined,” she says.