Shahbaz Hussain’s father disowned him legally in 2002
Shahbaz Hussain, a journalism graduate, joined SIMI in 1996 after he met the then UP chief of the outfit, Dr Shahid Badr Falahi. No one at Shahbaz’s native place in Bhadohi, where he was brought up, or in Lucknow, where he had been living since 2005, was surprised when the Jaipur police revealed his SIMI background. Shahbaz is now in the custody of the Jaipur Police for his alleged role in the May blasts.
A carpet dealer, a close friend of Shahbaz’s father Mumtaz Hussain in Bhadohi, said that Shahbaz was a bright student who appeared deeply influenced by Falahi. He said Shahbaz led a group of 22 SIMI members in Bhadohi Township and organised meetings and spread the ideas of the outfit, leading to his nomination as district president in 1998.
“We used to see him pasting posters and circulating SIMI pamphlets. But we still do not believe he would have gone to the extent of orchestrating the blasts,” says the carpet dealer who didn’t want to be named. He also says that Mumtaz wanted Shahbaz, his elder son, to join him in the family business but Shahbaz wasn’t interested.
After he got a degree in journalism from Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, in 2000, Shahbaz started writing for Islamic Movement, an English magazine. The carpet dealer says Shahbaz left Bhadohi after the police crackdown on SIMI in 2001. Mumtaz legally disowned his son in 2002 to avoid the frequent police raids at his house.
Shahbaz married in December 2002 and the couple relocated to Lucknow in 2005. Here, Shahbaz opened a cyber café and wound it up to start a consultancy firm, Zyna Career Consultancy, from the same place.
_bhupendra pandey