Patna, May 21 (IANS): A week after a 35-year-old engineer, who hails from a village in Bihar's Darbhanga district, was arrested in Saudi Arabia for alleged terror links in India, his family members and villagers are shocked and still cannot believe it.
Fasih Mehmood, an engineer working in Saudi Arabia for the last last five years, was arrested from Jubail in Dammam May 14 by Saudi police following a request from Indian authorities and reportedly deported to India.
"We have no information till date about his whereabouts after he was arrested in Saudi Arabia. The Indian government is yet to officially inform us," said Fasih's father, Dr. Firoz Ahmad, who is in charge of the Benipatti primary health centre in Madhubani district.
Fasih's mother is a school teacher in Darbhanga.
Fasih's wife Nikhat Parween said she had sent an email to the external affairs ministry to know about her husband. "I had requested the ministry to inform me about my husband," she said.
Parween, who returned to Patna from Saudi Arabia after her husband's arrest, is currently staying with her parents here.
Ahmad said that neither Saudi Arabia nor the Indian government had informed them about Fasih's arrest. "We are at God's mercy as the family is yet to get a word from the concerned authorities," he said.
Fasih, a resident of Barh Saaila village in Darbhanga, about 200 km from here, is seen as a simple family man with no record of any suspected activities.
"Fasih was a good student, a simple and gentle man. It is difficult to suspect his involvement in any other thing," Zafar Ahmad, a villager, said. He said that there was no record that Fasih was ever involved in anything wrong till date.
Mohammed Iqbal, another villager, said that Fasih was never involved in any radical activities. "He used to visit the village and spend time with family and friends. Fasih was also a good human being," he said.
Fasih was working with Eram Engineering Corporation in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, after obtaining his B.Tech. from an engineering college at Bhatkal in Karnataka.
Villagers in Barh Saaila are angry over Fasih's arrest in Saudi Arabia as he is the fourth person hailing from the village to be arrested for suspected terror links.
Early this month, Kafil Akhtar was arrested by Karnataka Police without informing Bihar Police. The move prompted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to describe it as a violation of the rule of law.