The arrest of T Nazir and Shafaz in Shillong and their alleged role in the Bangalore serial blasts have once again turned the limelight on this family of Kadachira in Kannur. It was Abdul Jaleel, 38, of this family who was first nabbed by Kerala police in October 2008 for his alleged links with militants in Kashmir.

Jaleel was a member of the right-wing Islamic organisation called National Development Front which has since merged into the Popular Front of India as part of an image makeover. Nazir and Shafaz who are now being questioned by Karnataka and Kerala police in Bangalore are both married to the daughters of Jaleel’s sister. The fourth family member of this group is Majid Parambayi who is married to Jaleel’s younger sister.

Majid was also arrested in connection with the burning of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus at Kalamassery in Kochi. He is also an accused in a murder case registered in Kannur and is now languishing in a jail in Ernakulam. Meanwhile, Fouziya, mother-in-law of Nazir and Shafaz, said that Nazir had cheated the family and destroyed their lives. “As women confined to the house, we had no idea what was going on. I understand that it was Nazir who influenced all the others to indulge in such anti-national activities. Now we are being victimised as a family of terrorists. I have to hear even my daughters’ accusations,’’ she said in Kannur.

“We are happy that he has been arrested’’ was how Nazir’s father Majeed reacted when news came that he had been arrested in Bangladesh. “He should be punished if he has committed these crimes,’’ said Majeed who abandoned his job in the Gulf to settle down in Kannur after controversies began to spread about Nazir.