Sitting in a tiny clinic under shelves lined with medicines for common colds to kamzori, Hakeem Shahid Badr Falahi listens attentively to people and scribbles them prescriptions. Billaria is one of three places at which he sees patients — he has a second clinic near his village Manchoba, and a third in Azamgarh town, 12 km away.

Work keeps the unani doctor with a degree from Aligarh Muslim University busy, but he finds the time to follow closely news on the Delhi blasts and the investigation that has put Azamgarh on the global terror map.

Shahid Badr Falahi is a former national president of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the organization with which the Indian Mujahideen is believed to have deep fraternal ties.

“I didn’t know these boys or their families but they seem to be educated and from good families. My heart says they were not involved (in the Delhi serial bombings),” says Falahi, who takes his last name from the neighbouring madrasa, Jamiatul Falah, where he studied.

“But I knew Abu Bashar. I met him at a seminar at the Madarsatul Islah in Beenapara. I remember him because he was the youngest speaker.”Bashar is currently in custody for his alleged involvement in the Gujarat blasts. He studied at the Beenapara madrasa.

Falahi also remembers his association with Safdar Nagori, a former general secretary of the SIMI, and Abdus Subhan Qureshi or Tauqeer.

“Tauqeer was in SIMI. He was the editor of the English edition of our monthly magazine, Islamic Movement. I had appointed him editor. Woh ek nek aur sharif ladka tha. I have a feeling he’s already in police custody. The police only highlight someone’s name when they already have him or when they are sure he cannot run away.”

... contd.