HYDERABAD: In the slums of Royal Colony in Balapur Dargah, mostly inhabited by Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar, Khalid Mohammed, who was picked up by NIA three days ago, used to teach Urdu and Arabic to the children from the locality.
His family, comprising mother, wife, one-year-old daughter, two sisters and a brother, has been living in the house since November last when they took refuge in Hyderabad. They hailed from Maungdaw city in Rakhina State(also known as Arakan). The 28-year-old madrasa-educated youth, his neighbours recall, was a calm and quiet person. Khalid, according to neighbours, was not troublesome.
His family, unable to come out of shock regarding his alleged terror connections, reiterate that he hardly stayed away from them during their stay in the city. The laptop, the NIA sleuths recovered from his possession, had led to a ruckus in the house three months ago.
His wife Sameera recalls how Khalid went ahead buying the laptop after selling her gold ring despite her objection. She had even threatened him with returning to her mother’s home. Mother Hameeda says her son is very level-headed.
“He used to be busy on his laptop and (smart) phone. We are uneducated and we never followed what he does,” she says.
The family has not met their head Kaleemullah in the last 10 years. Says Hameeda, “He works as a mason in Jeddah and has not been able to meet us since 10 years. Every month, he sends us money with which we manage our expenses. I hate Khalid sitting idle at home and forced him to teach children in the locality.” While Khalid’s elder sister is married to one Abdul Shukoor in Bangladesh, she says, none of them has ever gone to Bangladesh. “From Myanmar, we came straight to Hyderabad. My son has never left us even for a day. How can he have terror links in other countries?” she asks.
According to them, the NIA sleuths have taken away the laptop, mobile phone, pen drive and a dongle. Khalid, Hameeda recalls, had entered into an altercation with the fellow Rohingya community members during Ramzan and possibly was the only time he did so.
“A lot of money comes from outside for refugees and during Ramzan, Khalid was checking the accounts and raised questions about the misappropriation of funds. That had become an issue. He did that for the community members and not for himself,” she points out.
Khalid and family were probably the well-off among the refugees. They lived on the first floor of a two-storeyed pucca building while most others were living the life of an underprivileged. The house has minimum furniture and dark indoors and Khalid paid a monthly rent of Rs 2,500.
Clinical Operation
Khalid was picked up at around 2.30 am on Monday from the house. As the family recall, at least a hundred persons descended on their house and took away Khalid. Since then, officials are learnt to have brought Khalid home twice for investigation. On Tuesday, after the arrest, they came to the house to take a few signatures from Khalid’s mother. “We do not have any passport or visa. The only document we have is the UN certificate for refugees which was also taken away by officers,” said Hameeda. Khalid has been married to Sameera for two years. His brother Sultan (12) and two sisters go to a nearby school.