Around 3:30 am on Friday, an National Investigation Agency (NIA) team, accompanied by the local police, swooped on a house on 8th Cross, PH Colony in Tumakuru. Before entering the house, they latched the door of over 40 houses from outside in the vicinity.
Sound of boots and murmur jolted Hussain Mujahid, 35, out of sleep. Even before he could react to the situation, the NIA sleuths detained him on the charge of suspected link with IS.
The officials searched the house on the first floor of the building and took into their custody a photo album, a copy of Qur'an and Hadees, bank passbooks and cash totalling Rs 3.35 lakh.
NIA officials didn’t allow Mujahid to make calls to his relatives in the city and took him to Bengaluru in a vehicle.
Hussain Mujahid, who had a small provision store in Mandipet, had recently diversified his business. He used to supply broomsticks to a few neighbouring states.
Eldest son of Syed Hussain, a retired deputy tahsildar, and Faisal, a retired headmistress, Hussain Mujahid was staying with his parents, wife and five children, including three daughters, at their house.
When the NIA officials bundled Mujahid into a vehicle and drove off, parents and wife were inconsolable while his five children, all minors, were clueless and were trying to figure out what went wrong.
The 80-year-old Syed Hussain travelled all the way from Tumakuru to Bengaluru to address the media. He said that around 20 men, claiming to be from Delhi police barged into his house and picked up Mujahid in the early hours of Friday.
“He was born after we completed Hajj pilgrimage. My son is innocent and was not involved in any anti-social activities let alone the treason” said an inconsolable Syed Hussain.
He said that his son had no links with any terrorist organisation and requested the government to release him at the earliest.
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