Driver’s passport, Saudi past under scan

Syed Tauhid Ahmed, Rehan’s father-in-law, told The Indian Express that two Intelligence men came home this morning and asked for Rehan’s passport. ‘‘I gave them the passport. They probably want to see where all has he travelled. Rehan used to work in Damman in Saudi Arabia until four years ago. After his father died, he returned home and bought the jeep. He ran a taxi and that’s what has kept this family going,’’ Ahmed said.

Senior police officials said that Rehan, during his interrogation, maintained he had no idea about the identity of the men he picked up from the taxi-stand in Faizabad.

Police have also held another jeep driver on the basis of information that the terrorists may have come to Faizabad from Akbarpur. But their focus now is on Rehan’s passport and they will be ‘‘looking at it very carefully.’’

At Rehan’s home in Qaziana, the family is in a state of shock. ‘‘I am told he jumped out of the jeep once he realised what these men were upto. He raised an alarm, even alerted some policemen. The militants even took away his cellphone. We kept trying his number, it wasn’t working. We are not being allowed to meet him. If you manage to speak to him, do let us know,’’ said Rehan’s uncle Syed Samshul Hassan.

Father-in-law Tauhid Ahmed said Rehan had a brother in the Army. His father too had served in the Army. Another brother is an engineer. ‘‘His Saudia past is being probed but there’s nothing to it. Even there, he worked as a driver. He returned only because his father died and there was no one at home to take care of the rest. He never went abroad after that. He’s a good man, I only hope they let him off soon,’’ said Tauhid Ahmed. Hiba, meanwhile, continues her vigil at the door.

Meanwhile, the mystery over the identity of the man who perished in the jeep when it was blown up by militants to breach the metal security fence was solved this afternoon when two women showed up at the blast site and identified a chappal and a watch strap, saying these belonged to their brother-in-law Ramesh Pandey, a local guide who used to escort pilgrims .

‘‘We waited for him the whole of yesterday. We thought he may have gone out of town. We even spoke to his in-laws but they said they had not heard from him. But this is definitely his chappal. Even the watch strap is the same. How will we break this to his wife and mother? He has a four-year-old daughter, what will we do now,’’ wailed Pandey’s sisters-in-law Shakuntala Devi and Pushpa.

An FIR was being filed this evening. A police official said it was possible that the militants picked up Pandey, a local tour guide, to reach Katra Mohallah after dumping the jeep drier, Rehan Ahmed. Pandey ’s home is very close to the site of the blast.