Mumbai : While Arif Majeed was being presented in front of a judge in the sessions court on Saturday morning, back at his residence, locals wondered about his uncertain future, which will not only involve his fight against law enforcing agencies but also with himself.
Majeed’s residence in the Sarvoday Residency society in Kalyan West was locked and had been in that state for a couple of days. The neighbours did not know anything about the family’s whereabouts and neither had the family told them about the recent developments. “Whatever we know about Majeed is from the news channels and newspapers. The past few months have been filled with so much activity and so many rumours, we don’t know what to believe anymore,” said Shahid Khan, Majeed’s immediate neighbour since 2008.
“Although Majeed is being largely portrayed as a redicalised ISIS operative in the media, it is hard for us to believe it as he was, I mean is, a very sincere boy,” Khan said. An employee at a travel company, Khan had to remind himself repeatedly to refer to Majeed as ‘is’ and not ‘was’ as he got himself used to the fact that Majeed is alive and not dead as news reports had suggested in August.
Another local, Shehnaaz Deshmukh who was house hunting in the society said that everything about Majeed’s life since he left has managed to unnerve the locals. “He went with the belief that if he dies he will go to heaven. But that clearly didn’t happen and now he is back. He is going to have to bear the scars of this event forever, no matter where he goes. I can’t even imagine how he and his family will rebuild their lives now,” Deshmukh said.
Giving an example of how taxing it has been for the family too, Khan added that after Majeed left there were a long period when his mother used to wail for her son, wishing for him to come back. On the other hand, another resident of the society, A G Shaikh said, “I used to meet Majeed’s father, Dr Ejaz Majeed during namaz and after Majeed left the man used to look like he has lost all hope and won’t survive. All we hope now is that Majeed leads a normal life just as any other Indian.”
While this was the situation at Majeed’s residence, Iftekhar Khan who is uncle of two youths, Fahad Sheikh and Amaan Tandel, and family friend respectively said that their families are planning to ask the government to bring their sons back. They will approach the Prime Minister and other government officials to help them in this task.
“We are hoping that just like Majeed, Allah show’s our son the path to come home too,” said Sheikh’s mother, Kaniz Zohra Sheikh.
A source close to the family also said, “Government agencies have told us that unless our sons express the wish to come back, they might not be able to do anything. Nevertheless, we are hopeful. Only a miracle can bring them back now.”
Both Sheikh and Tandel live a few minutes’ walk away from Majeed’s residence in Govindwadi, while Saheem Tanki the fourth youth lives 10-minutes walk away in a bungalow at Doodh Naka in Kalyan.
Tanki’s family refused to talk when approached by this reporter.
Sindhu J Mansukhani
