While much of Malegaon has been rejoicing over the release of seven of its men on bail five years after being arrested for the September 2006 bomb blasts,the wait continues for three families in the textile town. Three men from these families were also accused in the case. Now nobody knows if they are even alive. The seven got bail following a reported confession by Swami Aseemanand that Hindu extremists were behind the Malegaon blasts. Riyaz Ahmed,38,Munawar Ahmed,36,and Ishtiyaque Ahmed,28,were named in the chargesheet by the Maharashtra ATS. The three were accused of being involved in the conspiracy but specific charges were not laid out as they went missing. Witnesses claim they last saw Riyaz and Munawar being pulled into police jeeps. Ishtiyaque left home at midnight on October 27. The National Investigation Agency is also looking for them. A witness claimed Riyaz a former SIMI member was taken in a jeep to Aysha Nagar police station on October 30. None of the three families filed a missing person complaint as they believed the three had been taken away by the police themselves. ATS officials refused to comment. In the days after the blast,many Muslim youths were questioned. They would come asking for Riyaz at odd hours, says his younger brother Nizam Ahmed. After that day,we havent heard about him or from him. The police too did not come for him again. Munawar,a former president of the Malegaon unit of SIMI,delivered sermons. His mother Siddiquennisa says he fled from his uncles house on October 23. His neighbours claim they saw him being pulled into a police vehicle outside his house. Ishtiyaque and his elder brother Mushtaq earned a living selling excess fabric produced by factories,pushing them as Bangladeshi kapda (cloth from Bangladesh) on two handcarts on Kidwai Road,before Mushtaq was picked up in connection with the Aurangabad arms haul in 2006. Soon after the 2006 blasts,he started getting asked questions, recalled his father Mohammed Ishaque. He walked in home late one night and told us he is going out for a while. He never returned, his mother Chandbi said.
