KASARGOD: “Apart from us, no one misses him here,” said Abdul Rashid Abdulla’s younger brother. Rashid, 29, a software engineer, is missing and facing charges of terrorism.
Sitting at his home at Udumbunthala in Trikaripur, his brother said, Rashid has no friends here. “All his friends are with him,” he said, referring to the other 20 persons missing from Trikaripur, Padna and Palakkad.
Yet, today, everyone knows Rashid’s address. “Right adjacent to the Juma Masjid. Their properties share a border,” said a resident, when asked for direction.
Sitting next to the imposing Juma Masjid in Udumbunthala, a tiny village with five other mosques and a temple, is Rashid’s simple house. His brother, a dentist practising in Trikaripur, agreed to open up on condition of anonymity. “I am renovating my clinic now but took time to meet you to clear my brother’s name from the slander,” he said.
Even as his family was getting back to their lives, another bomb hit them. Police told reporters that Rashid had a second wife, Yasmin Ahmed, who worked with Peace International School at Kottakkal, and that she was arrested while trying to flee to Kabul to join him.
“The news emotionally shattered my mother once again. She was almost coming to terms with the initial shocker of Rashid joining the Islamic State,” said the dentist, five years younger to Rashid. His third brother is living with autism, and is dependent on their mother. Their father, who runs a furniture shop in Oman, had returned to take up his business. He said no one in the family believed the police story and could prove them wrong.
‘A puritan not a hypocrite’
The brother, who asked not to be named, said his family was hearing the name of Yasmin for the first time. “If Rashid had married or had an affair with her, he would have told us,” he said. Even if he did not want to tell the family, he would not leave her behind if he loved her, he said. “He is too much of a puritan to abandon her, but never a hypocrite,” said the younger brother.
Police say Rashid is the central figure in the group of 21 persons missing from Kerala. “If he is the one who took everyone, why would he leave Yasmin behind,” he asked.
Rashid left home with his wife, Ayesha (earlier known as Sonia Sebastian), and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Sara.
‘Gradual change’
Rashid, the eldest was born in Payyannur, and grew up with his two brothers in Oman. “Rashid is the one who introduced me to Iron Maiden and Scorpions. But after he turned religious, I always use headphones to listen to music,” the brother said.
After completing his schooling at Indian School Darsait, Muscat, he joined an engineering college in Pala, Kottayam, to study electronics and communications. During inter-college events, he met his future wife Sonia Sebastian, who was in an engineering college in Ernakulam.
After their BTech, Rashid joined Al Rostamani Communications in Dubai as pre sales engineer and IT consultant; and Sonia joined an MBA course in a college in Bangalore.
The two were in touch over internet, says a friend of Rashid’s father. “He was very open about his friendship with Sonia. He used to chat with her and his father knew about it,” the family friend said.
That was also the time Rashid veered towards religion. He quit his job in Dubai as it was not his field, and took up a job with a private company installing telecom tower. As its operations manager, he had to interact with government officials, who sought bribe to give clearance to set up towers. “He abhorred corruption and quit it. It was against his values,” the brother said.
‘Slave of Fashion’
During the same time, Sonia Sebastian was taking a serious interest in Islam. In an audio clip uploaded by Salafist televangelist M M Akbar on YouTube, Sonia said she was introduced to Islam by a woman when she was pursuing MBA in Bangalore. Sonia, a Catholic Christian, grew up in Bahrain. In her own words, she was a “slave of fashion” and wore what was in vogue. The brother who spoke to Express agreed to it.
“When I met bhabi in Bangalore she was very fashionable,” he said. He was with a dental college in Bangalore then. But Sonia found liberation in hijab first and then in purdah, she said in what appears to be an event organised by Akbar’s Niche of Truth.
The clip was uploaded from Akbar’s handle on August 1, 2015. After her MBA, when she returned home, she was a Muslim. She used to do namaz at home, which used to irk her parents. Later, she joined Peace International School in Trikaripur as a teacher. Sick of “bribing government officials”, Rashid too quit the Kochi company and joined Peace International School. “He found Peace school the right place where he can be at peace with his religion and do something creative for the children,” said his brother.
Lovebirds
When the topic of marriage was broached at their homes, Rashid’s family was reluctant. “My parents did not like the idea of bringing in a Christian girl or a girl converted for marriage,” says his brother. But when Rashid told them that she had converted to Islam long ago, they agreed. The wedding was held in Kozhikode and attended by very close relatives of Rashid. No one from the family of Sebastian, now Ayesha, attended the wedding.But Ayesha kept insisting on her parents to convert to Islam, which irked them. “Her mother used to call my mother and ask why she is doing so,” the brother said. During this time, Rashid from being clean shaven, started sporting long uncut beard. “In the last weeks before he disappeared he was wearing the Arab’s robe,” he said.In their personal life, Rashid and Ayesha were inseparable. “He used to never leave her alone and go anywhere,” says his brother. “If he is going somewhere for more than one day, he will take her along,” he says. Their first child had a congenital disorder and lived only five months. The tragedy brought the couple closer. Sara, their second child is now two-and-a-half years old and is believed to be with them. “Such close was their relationship, that there was no space for another woman,” he said.However, Kasargod public prosecutor told ‘Express’ that Yasmin Ahmed, also facing the same charges as Rashid’s, felt “safe and secure with him” and that was why she decided to go to Kabul to join him. The government lawyer said investigations revealed that they could be in ISIS-controlled area of Afghanistan.
Rashid At Peace
At Peace International Schools, started by M M Akbar, the rise of Rashid was meteoric. From a teacher, he became the trainer of teachers of all Peace Schools. He was even helping set the curriculum, along with his wife, who quit her job as teacher after Sara was born. Interestingly, even the domain name of Peace International School is owned by Rashid.
No friends
Apart from his family no one in Udumbunthala missed Rashid, said his brother. “Whoever are his friends are with him, wherever they are,” he said. So, the allegation of Rashid “brainwashing the others” was plain illogical. “They were a close knit group and they left together,” he said. After leaving home, he left a message in his brother’s mobile phone. “Tell my parents we have left home to make hijira,” he said. Despite asking his whereabouts, he never reveals it, the brother said.