Hiding behind silence, holding on to occasional video chats

NAME: FAIZ MASOOD
AGE: 29
FROM: Bengaluru
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Business management graduate
STATUS: Left for Qatar in Sept 2013, went missing soon after

If Faiz Masood ever showed a streak of activism during his young life in Bengaluru, it was to canvass for the cause of poor Muslims on his blog. One of the last things he did online while living in Bengaluru, in mid-2013, was to set up a Facebook account for his father’s successful furniture business in the heart of the city.

A few months later, in September 2013, Faiz, a father of two, left for Qatar abruptly, without telling his parents anything, and disappeared soon after.

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Authorities believe Faiz hasn’t come home or called back since. “He is reported to have gone to Syria via Qatar. He is reported to have died,” said an official.

Faiz’s father Masood Ali refuses to believe that. “Whatever is being said about him is false. We do not want to speak about it. You must respect my sentiments,” he said.

“We would not like to speak, please don’t approach us,” said Faiz’s wife.

The two met at Bengaluru’s Christ College, where they were both students. Faiz did his graduation in business management.

In an online blog Faiz maintained between 2010 and 2011, he sought funds for an orphanage, extolled Muslims to donate blood and talked about a child and a young man in dire need of funds for medical care.

“The Muslim community might be a minority in this country but when it comes to the population of slums, we are the majority. Many efforts are being made to improve the condition of people. But unless the realisation and awareness don’t spread among the family (Muslims), things will not change,” he wrote in March 2010.

NAME: Mohammed Umar Subhan
AGE: Not known
FROM: Not known; last address Bengaluru
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Not known
STATUS: Went to Yemen in 2008, then Syria; dead

A tiny, abandoned office on the first floor of an old building opposite the Sultan Shah Masjid in Bengaluru’s bustling Shivajinagar area is the address security agencies have for Mohammed Umar Subhan.

But no one has been at this address for some time now. In 2008, Umar left to work in Yemen. From there, he is alleged to have travelled to Syria. A couple of years ago, news came of his death. Security agencies suspect he was killed in Syria.

It’s not they alone who want answers. The office was actually rented out for a tiny sum of Rs 110 a month to Umar’s father Mohammed Abdul Subhan, an architect. Around two years ago, Abdul reportedly disappeared, with a rent of nearly a year due.

“He had been our tenant for nearly 10 years. The office has been lying vacant. We would also like to find him to collect our dues,” said Deepak Kumar, who owns the building. “We have no contact details for Abdul. We don’t know where he lives. A phone number he provided us does not work anymore.”

They know little about Umar though. Kumar said they never saw the son at the office. “We knew he was in some Arab country and that he had got into some trouble and was killed.”

A lawyer who has an office in the same building also confirmed hearing about Umar’s death. “We heard he had been involved in some crime and been captured or killed,” the lawyer said.

NAME: Abdul Khuddus Turki
AGE: 32
FROM: Bijapur, north Karnataka
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Class X
STATUS: Authorities believe killed in Syria; family says alive, in Saudi Arabia

The son of a street vendor, Abdul Khuddus Turki went to Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago to work as a supplies assistant in a hospital. Ten months later, he was reported missing. Soon after, allegations that he may have gone to Syria surfaced, followed by claims that he may be dead.

“I don’t know why my brother is being linked to a terrorist organisation,” said Turki’s younger sister Asma. “I just spoke to him a few minutes ago. In June, when he was reported killed, we had set up a video chat with him in the presence of local police officials to prove that our Turki was alive.”

During the video interaction with the Bijapur police, Turki stated that confusion may have arisen since his passport had expired and he was in the process of applying to the Indian Embassy in Riyadh for renewal.

A maternal uncle of Turki told police that his nephew would often disappear and not communicate with friends or family. Asma said allegations that Turki was linked to terrorism had caused them much hardship. “Our neighbours started avoiding us and keeping away from us,” she said.

They are in constant touch with Turki through video chats and conference, Asma added.

With their father old and unable to work now, the family depends on Turki’s earnings, however infrequent, she said. “I tutor children to earn a living… It is very traumatic for us to hear false reports that he has been killed in Iraq or some other place.”

NAME: Abdul Khadir Sultan Armar alias Sultan alias Mullah
AGE: 39
FROM: Bhatkal, Karnataka
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Imam
STATUS: Presumed killed in Syria

In March 2015, a few Twitter accounts and websites aligned with the Islamic State began paying homage to a man identified as ‘Abu Abdullah Al Hindi’ alias Sultan Armar, adding he had died fighting in the battle for Kobane in Syria. Also posted were pictures of the 39-year-old Armar offering prayers or with a machine gun.

Despite not being named in any major terrorist activity in India other than the online recruitment and brainwashing of Muslim youths, Bhatkal-born Armar was one of India’s most-wanted terrorists when his death was announced, and still remains on the NIA list. “The death of Sultan Armar is more or less confirmed,” sources said.

Armar’s brother Shafi, 28, has also been found to be linked to terrorist activities.

Though the Armar family insists they have no information on him, sources said a few members of the family had observed certain rituals marking the death of a close family member.

“I don’t know where they are. They don’t send me any money. They were in Muscat for over 10 years. Around five years ago they stopped communicating,” Armar’s mother Hajira had told The Indian Express a few months ago. She lives at their home in Bhatkal in coastal Karnataka with her youngest son.

Armar’s wife who earlier lived with her mother-in-law is reported to have moved to her parents’ home with their child, following news of his death.

An imam, Armar received his religious schooling at the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow, before moving to Muscat eight years ago. Sultan and Shafi were reportedly living there for a long time before moving to Pakistan allegedly at the behest of Indian Mujahideen co-founder and former Bhatkal resident Riyaz Bhatkal, said police sources.

Armar is believed to also have links with al-Qaeda, and is considered the founder of the Ansar-ul-Tauheed, that emerged on the Internet last year extolling the cause of the IS and encouraging Indian Muslims to join it.

The masked man who featured in a video posted on the Ansar-ul-Tauheed’s Al-Isabah website in 2014, swearing allegiance to the self-declared Caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, is believed to have been Armar.