Faridabad: The wife of Al-Falah Mosque’s Imam Hafeez Mohammad Ishtiaq on Saturday insisted that her husband has no involvement in the terror plot, and the two doctors accused in the Delhi car blast case befriended their family and “misled” him.
Ishtiaq, who served as an Imam at the mosque in Faridabad’s Dhera Colony, was detained earlier this week after investigators uncovered more than 2,540 kg of ammonium nitrate, potassium chlorate, and sulphur during a major anti-terror operation at his home at Fatehpur Taga. He was taken to Srinagar for interrogation.
Speaking to IANS, Hasina said the allegations against her husband were baseless and that he had no links to the terror module or the November 10 explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort Metro Station, which killed at least 12 people and injured several others.
“Dr Muzammil first established a relationship with my husband at the mosque and then started buying milk from him. Muzammil rented a room for Rs 1500 per month in our house in Fatehpura Taga, claiming he was storing his belongings,” she said.
Additional explosives, amounting to about 360 kg, were later recovered from another rented room in Dhauj village, for which Dr Muzammil had paid Rs 2,400 in rent. Hasina also said that Dr Umar, who was accused of driving the car that exploded near the Red Fort, visited the mosque daily.
Since the November 10 blast, security agencies have intensified searches across the country, particularly in Faridabad, where Al-Falah Hospital and University are located.
Investigators have arrested three doctors from the university — Dr Umar, believed to be the person driving the car that exploded, Dr Muzammil, and Dr Shaheed Shahid — along with Imam Ishtiaq and Jameel, an HR department employee, for involvement in the attack.
Hasina said her husband has been associated with the mosque for nearly two decades. She said he earned a monthly salary of Rs 2,000 when he began working there and that he had moved to Bhima Pahadi village in 2005. She married him in 2008, and the couple has four children. Their eldest daughter is 16, and their youngest son is 7.
“He holds the status of Hafiz, meaning he memorised the Quran by heart. He has been leading prayers at the university’s mosque for about 20 years. The university was currently paying him a monthly salary of about Rs 10,000,” she said.
Hasina further mentioned that her household supplied 5 to 6 kilograms of milk daily to doctors at the university and that Dr Muzammil was one of the regular buyers.
“For the past 20 days, Dr Muzammil hadn’t been coming to collect the milk because he had taken leave and gone to Pulwama,” she added.
Haseena said that they had purchased 100 yards of land in Fatehpur Taga several years ago for Rs 2,000 per yard and built a house there in 2012.
On November 10, her husband left for work in the fields at 6 a.m., and shortly after, she also went to work. After working for half a day in the fields, she returned home at 10:30 a.m., just as 10 to 12 police vehicles arrived and took Ishtiaq away.
Ishtiaq’s seven-year-old son, Sahil, also asserted his father’s innocence, saying: “My father is an innocent man; he has no connection to all of this. We have not been told what his crime is.”
Meanwhile, investigations continue at the Al-Falah University campus, which has become a focal point in the Faridabad terror module probe and the Delhi blast case.
Several university staff and students have been questioned as part of the inquiry.
In a separate development, the Association of Indian Universities has suspended the membership of Al-Falah University, citing concerns over its “good standing”, and has instructed the institution to remove the AIU name and logo from all platforms.
(IANS)
