PATNA: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad is tightening its grip on Murshid Zahir Akhtar Sheikh, a resident of Bihar’s Samastipur district, for his suspected links with Pakistan’s intelligence agency (ISI) and other terrorist organisations.
Police have seized the bank accounts of Murshid’s father and mother after quizzing them for several hours on Saturday.
Superintendent of Police (SP), Samastipur, Arvind Pratap Singh, said that police were verifying Aadhaar cards of Murshid’s family members.
On Saturday, police from Darbhanga and the Patori sub-division in Samastipur district conducted a raid at the suspect’s house and seized all his bank accounts. They also took samples of their Aadhaar cards for further investigation.
Murshid’s father, Mohammad Zahid, his mother, Farhat Khatoon, and his brother, Mehtab Alam, live in Ward 8 of Shiura village under Patori police station limits in Samastipur district. Murshid spent his childhood in his native village and attended the Shiura Maktab School till the 8th standard.
He was arrested three days ago in Mumbai by the Gujarat ATS. He is suspected of having links with operatives of a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation and also of being involved in a conspiracy to allegedly carry out subversive activities across the country.
His father earns his living through farming and manual labour. Murshid is the youngest of four brothers and three sisters.
Murshid’s father said that his son had been mentally unstable since childhood. On several occasions, the local mukhiya had to resolve disputes involving him at the social level. His elder brothers, Aftab and Munajir Hussain, live in Mumbai.
Aftab is working at a leather factory in Mumbai, and Murshid ran a biryani shop with his brother Munajir. The ATS alleged that Murshid was involved in terrorist activities through the shop.
His elder brother, Mehtab Alam, lives in Shiura and works in a tent factory. All of his sisters are married.
The family sent Murshid to Mumbai to earn a livelihood as he was unemployed. “The family’s economic condition was not well. So, we decided to send him to Mumbai,” his father told the local media after the ATS operation.
He, however, exuded confidence that his son could not have done anything wrong, but did not rule out the possibility of him falling into bad company.