Sky-watching and Islamic Literature. That’s what Mohammad Haneef had recorded as his areas of interest, in his convocation book.
College had its share of fun moments for Sabeel Ahmed. However, like he himself had put it in the book, “five years was enough”.
Not much has been traced about Kafeel, Sabeel’s elder brother. But he is also being recalled as a staunch believer by friends and people who know him.
As detail after fractured detail about the Bangalore links to the foiled UK blast tumbled out, the three suspects — Kafeel, Sabeel and Haneef — are increasingly being identified with certain basic character patterns: soft-spoken, obedient and bookish youngsters who practise unflinching faith, with no questions asked.
For a close-knit family, it’s intriguing that relatives are apparently oblivious to the social circles that the youngsters moved in. Haneef’s sister Sumayya, even while giving out exhaustive details about the exams her brother took before moving to the UK, said she didn’t know the friends with whom he shared his UK accommodation.
A friend called Sabeel a studious, fun-loving youngster who was never into “bad habits” but at the same time, a firm believer.
“In fact, I had learnt a lot about Islam from him,” the friend said. He also recalled a beard that Sabeel started sporting after 2004 as uncharacteristic of his friend.
According to officials in the neighbourhood mosque, after Kafeel and Sabeel joined the Tablighi Jamaat — perceived as a hardliner sect — the two brothers had a minor tiff with people at the mosque.
For residents in the brothers’ neighbourhood, the family has always been “different” and “upper class”.
Even one of Sabeel’s friends, when asked whether he had visited the brothers’ aged parents, said that his parents had advised him against it.