On May 5, 2016, the front pages of most major newspapers proclaimed a sensational victory for the Delhi Police:

Delhi Cops arrest three terrorists covert op (Hindustan Times)

Accidental Blast Foils JeM’s plan for a Pathankot in NCR (The Times of India)

IS-inspired Jihadist cell busted in Delhi was plotting strikes, say police (Indian Express)

Keywords such as “Jaish-e-Mohammad”, “Muslim”, “terrorist” and “attacks” are  24 karat clickbait, but when a jihadist cell has been found in Delhi, it seems justified. Was it though?

The curious part of these headlines and news reports on the arrests was that the mood of those who should have sounded the most triumphant — the Delhi Police — was actually quite mellow. On Friday, a day after the arrest, sources at the Gokulpuri police station said that those detained will be allowed go in a day or two. One added that the “suspects don’t have any criminal record against them.”  

So why were these ‘terrorists’ suspected of being associated with Pakistan-based terror outfit JeM? How was it assumed that they were inspired by the Islamic State? Had they already planned an attack on the Hindon Airbase in Ghaziabad or were they still trying to figure a target? Instead of answering questions, the arrests actually served to raise more doubts.

For example, the Indian Express reported that the suspects used the Telegram app for communication. This fits neatly with recent reports that that the accused were an IS-inspired cell since Telegram is believed to be favoured by the IS.

However, in Hindustan Times and The Times of India, the name of the application changes to WhatsApp. If Delhi Police was actually tracking conversations carried out by the prime accused, then surely the detail of which app was used by the accused shouldn’t change in different reports?

Even the chain of events about how the prime accused Sajid got in touch with the JeM chief Masood Azhar’s brother, Talha is different. ToI and Indian Express reported that Sajid visited Rangonoor.com and it was through this website that he met Talha. Except according to ToI, Sajid went to Rangonoor two years ago and one ‘Akka’ replied, to his several appeals, with a contact number.  He later got in touch with Talha. How? That is not clearly mentioned. Indian Express wrote Sajid visited the website last year and got a number from it that put him in touch with Talha. HT reported that Sajid got Talha’s contact from Facebook communities related to terrorism (no year was given).

Even more fundamentally, is the reasoning behind labelling those who were arrested as suspects or accused credible?

The arrests were carried out in North-East Delhi’s Chand Bagh which is a densely-populated, Muslim colony. Residents belong to lower and middle classes. Many are feriwalas who sell clothes. Despite being surrounded by areas with high rates of crime, Chand Bhagh’s locals say there’s little petty crime here. It’s been a quiet and unremarkable part of Delhi that appears to have caught the attention of Delhi Police simply because most of its residents are orthodox, devout Muslims.  

The recent cordoning of Chand Bagh, the arrests and vilification that has resulted from the arrests of the suspects has changed the neighbourhood, say the locals. They’re acutely aware of how the colony has been depicted as a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism and predictably, their first grouse is against the media. “We don’t believe the media reports,” said one resident, whose neighbour was one of the 10 who were taken into custody and then released on Sunday. The family of 33-year old Imran Khan, another suspect who has been released, refused to talk to Newslaundry, saying “Media se baat nahi karni, sab galat dikha rahe hain.” (“We don’t want to talk to the media. All of them are showing false reports.”) From the moment the suspects were taken out of Chand Bagh, their families had insisted that the Delhi Police had the wrong men.

Three ‘suspects’– Sajid, Sameer Ahmed and Shakir Ansari,who were arrested that night, were later produced in the court on May 4. They will remain in police custody till May 14.  

When four out of the ten suspects, who were ‘detained’, were released on Saturday itself, because there wasn’t enough evidence to hold them, the anger voiced by the residents of Chand Bagh proved to be entirely justified. The rest of the detained suspects too were released on Sunday.

Back in the lanes of Chand Bagh, Sajid’s neighbours’ still remember the night when the Special Cell of Delhi Police had cordoned Galli Number Three. “No one was allowed to move from their position,” said a 30-year-old neighbour who lives in front of Sajid’s house. In this four-storeyed building, Sajid lived with his mother, the families of his three brothers and a 17-year-old sister. He’s the youngest of four and a Class IX dropout. He left formal education at about the same time as when his mother Amna, who is in her 60s, told Sajid to leave dancing. As has been widely reported, Sajid wanted to participate in the dance reality TV show, Dance India Dance. “This is against Islam so I asked him to stop indulging in such activities and rather focus on what is prescribed in our religion,” Amna told Newslaundry.

Amna isn’t alone in her opinion. Chand Bagh is a conservative neighbourhood. Others we spoke to agreed that singing in public and dancing in general was “anti-Islamic” and discouraged such habits. Ironically, the religiosity that Chand Bagh values in its youth may have been what made Sajid and the others seem suspect to the Delhi Police.

After leaving dance, Sajid started going to the Fatima Mosque regularly and also started reading Urdu about 18 months ago. “Allah ne esi hidayat di ko sahi rashte par aa gaya,” said his mother. (“Allah gave him such instruction that he automatically started following right practices.”) The path to the mosque, sadly, is where Sajid was ultimately arrested. “They (the police) arrested him on the street as he was returning from Fatima Mosque after the night namaz,” said Taiyab, who is Sajid’s eldest brother.

Taiyab says that the police searched their house all night. Books, pipes, batteries and locks were amongst the material seized. Sajid’s 17-year sister (were not comfortable sharing her name) said, “They even took the carbon from the motors of the sewing machines.” What has been reported in the media as a bomb-making workshop is, according to his family, the basement where Sajid stitched the female undergarments that he would later sell.

Barely 100 meters from Sajid’s building is Mohsin Khan’s home. Khan is one of the 10 who has since been released, after being arrested on the same night as Sajid. “Someone was sneaking inside our room, I asked my husband to check,” said Khan’s wife Bilbis Nisha. Mohsin opened the door and was dragged out of his house. “Mohsin ko bola kisi ko awaz mat dena warna goli mar denge,” said his brother-in-law’s wife Sugoi. (“Mohsin was told by these men not to raise voice otherwise they will shoot him.”)

Khan earned Rs 300-400 hundred a day, peddling clothes. “His routine is simple: five times namaz, selling clothes in the morning and collecting stock in the evening. Rest of the time he spends with his two daughters,” said his elder brother Sehzad Khan, who as envelope manufacturing factory in Bhanjanpura. When asked about Mohsin, one person in Chand Bagh said, “Bahot sidha aadmi hai, Mohsin. Bechare ko mobile chalana tak nahi aata, woh bomb kahan se banaega?”(“He is innocent man. He doesn’t even know how to operate a basic mobile phone, how can he make bombs?”)

Like Sajid and Khan, Muhammad Taher and his brother Mufti Mohammad Muzzahir appear to have been singled out because of their deeply-held religious faith. Muzzahir is an Imam in the local mosque in Loni and Taher works in a printing press that publishes the Quran. “Allah-Allah karna aur apne kaam se kaam rakhna,” said one of Taher’s co-workers at the printing press. (“Preaching and keeping himself limited to his own work.”)  He added that Taher used to stop the rest of them from fighting, wasting time and encouraged them to go the mosque. Tehmoor Ali, who has been working with Taher for past seven years said, “We never believed the allegation will never do so.”

However, not everyone is likely to be equally generous. Even though the Special Cell has released all ten ‘suspects’, the tag of having been suspected of terrorism is going to haunt them. Imam Muzzahir, who was released on Saturday. Tehmoor said, “I don’t think that the press owner will be keen to keep him here anymore.”  He also informed that Taher has been asked by the Police to come to the court everyday.

Although released, the impression that Chand Bagh has been left with after this string of arrests and detentions is that the Delhi Police has the neighbourhood on its radar and that going back to normal will be hard. For instance, a Hindu family in the same lane as Imran Khan’s family believed rumours that the police had recovered guns and bombs from the ones who were taken in. “Why will the police randomly pick someone like this?” asked a neighbour, who didn’t wish to be named. “They must have done something wrong.” A young Hindu girl, sitting near Khan’s house said,“Even when they are released, we are not going to trust them. We doubt their links now.”

The Chand Bagh arrests are reminiscent of other instances when  the Delhi Police had got it wrong.  Maqbool Shah, a Srinagar boy, was arrested on June 17, 1997, from a rented room in Delhi, for his alleged involvement in the Lajpat Nagar blast. After spending over 13 years in Tihar Jail, Shah was acquitted by the Delhi Court. In May 2014 “The dangerous mastermind of the Akshardham attack” Mufti Abdul Qayyum, was declared innocent and set free, but after spending 11 years in jail. Mohammad Amir Khan was arrested for physically installing bombs in series of blasts which took place between December 1996 to October 1997 in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Rohtak and Sonipat. Amir was ambushed by a Delhi Police van in February 1998. His co-accused Shakeel was found hanging from ceiling fan in Dasna Jail, Ghaziabad.  After spending over 14 years in jail, the court acquitted Amir. “I was held guilty until proven innocent,” said Amir after his release.

Let’s hope this history doesn’t repeat itself for Sajid, Samir and Shakir.  

The author can be contacted on Twitter @amit_bhardwaz