On August 12, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Uttar Pradesh arrested a terrorist named Nadeem Mohammed associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan from Kunda Kalan village, Saharanpur. According to the ATS, Muhammad Nadeem was given the task of killing Nupur Sharma, the former spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, for her allegedly blasphemous statement against the Prophet Muhammed.
Team OpIndia reached Kunda Kalan village on August 17 to see the locality where Nadeem was staying and allegedly building a terrorist network in India. On the way from Gangoh village to Kunda Kalan, the team saw that there are villages like Bilaspur and Binpur which consist of a Hindu majority population whereas most of the houses in the Kunda Kalan village belong to Muslims. Village head Gulfam told OpIndia, “There are around 7500 voters in the village. Of these, only about 500 are Hindus”. According to former village head Iqbal, there are 6 madrasas and 15 mosques in the village which is located just two km away from the Haryana border.
The infrastructure of nearby villages which leads to Kunda Kalan is quite developed. There is a primary health center about 1 km before Nadeem’s village. Two women who were passing on the paved road talked to Opindia and said that they had heard about a terrorist being caught at some distance.
On reaching the Kunda Kalan village, the team saw a gate outside Nadeem’s locality that displayed the name of Haji Sharif’s son Noura as the village President and the name of Om Prakash as village Vice President. Naseem, who was grazing goats near the gate, informed us that Haji Sharif has died. Regarding the arrest of Nadeem, he said, “Nadeem has committed a grave mistake. What did he have to do with Pakistan?”. Meanwhile, a woman grazing the goats said, “We are poor. We don’t even know who Nupur Sharma is”.
Team OpIndia team then reached Nadeem’s house on August 17 where many people from the village had gathered. Initially, Nadeem’s father Nafees refused to speak saying that he was ill. However, after a while, he agreed. He told that his village houses the Sunni majority community. Most people follow the Deobandi faith. “Before the arrest, some people from the ATS had come to our house in the morning and they inquired about our Aadhar cards. They asked us whether had we linked our Aadhaar cards with our voter IDs. They met the whole family. Then in the evening same people came in 4 vehicles and took Nadeem away from his room”, Nadeem’s father Nafees said adding that they neither know about Nupur Sharma nor about Jaish-e-Mohammed.
According to Nafees, the mobile of his other son who looks after a grocery shop in Dehradun was also checked. “ATS had also caught my another son named Taimur. But they released him later”, he said. He further tried to portray that his son Nadeem was innocent and said that Nadeem was talking to his ‘relatives’ in Pakistan. “He should not be punished this severely if he must have passed some wrong comment while talking to his relatives in Pakistan”, father Nafees said.
Nadeem’s father further said that his son was being trapped deliberately by the security forces. “Earlier many people have been made to look like terrorists. And now my son has become one of those”, he complained. However, after some time he reversed his words and sought mercy for his son. He said that even if Nadeem has made any mistake, the government should forgive him. “I’ll take his complete responsibility. The government must forgive my son”, he appealed.
According to Nadeem’s family, he had no habit of consuming intoxicants. Nadeem’s neighbor told that when the ATS officers came at night, it was raining heavily and the streets were filled with water. “The ATS men left the car on the main road and walked down towards Nadeem’s house”, he said adding that there was no police case against Nadeem.
Also, the local villagers talked to Opinda on August 17. They said that there should be a fair investigation into the incident. Former head Iqbal said, “About 60 families of the village have a kinship in Pakistan. Of these, why only Nadeem has been caught is a matter of investigation”. The villagers also said that the incident is bringing a bad name to the village.
