HYDERABAD: It was business as usual at Naseeb Nagar in Chandrayangutta on Sunday. The neighbourhood showed no signs of arrest of a youth alleged to have links with ISIS operatives or their handlers in Syria. Twenty-four-year-old Mohammed Abdullah Basith, who was nabbed twice earlier for attempting to flee to Syria and now arrested for his suspected links with ISIS’ Abu Dhabi module, lived here in a house with a walled compound. While the large iron gates remained closed on Sunday, Basith was learnt to be nothing more than a stranger to his neighbours.
On Sunday afternoon, while his father Md Abdul Arif and mother were away, his 12-year-old brother Osama was having a sound sleep inside. Their cook who was busy in her daily chores claimed ignorance as to when the elders in the house would return. Basith was at home till six days ago. “I had seen him six days ago. I do not know any details about him, but the younger boy is studying in a nearby school,” said the cook at Basith’s residence.
One of his neighbours here said the elderly couple led a dignified life but not much was known outside about the children, except that the younger one studied in a nearby school. “We did not know much about Basith, but never expected that he was into such activities. Though he is arrested, we are scared with the thought that such a person was amidst us all these days,” she said, as Basith’s cook peeped over through an opening in the gate.
It is learnt that Basith’s father had constructed the house around two decades ago and was residing with his wife and two children. Arif who was into a business, stopped going out of the house frequently after his recent open-heart surgery. The couple interacted with a few neighbours very often, but spent most of the time with their relatives who reside in the neighbourhood.
On the other hand, the residence of Abdul Qadeer, the 19-year-old who was arrested by NIA on Sunday, at Shaheen Nagar in Balapur was locked and the entire colony wore a deserted look. Qadeer was a total stranger to his neighbours, as he stayed away from home at his relatives’ places for education.
Qadeer’s parents and his younger brother Taha moved into this rented house only two years ago. The owner had passed away, after which his wife is taking care of the house.