“Country's enemy is our enemy,” was what Abdul Qadir, son of G.M. Khan, a former Indian Air Force man accused of influencing youths to join an alleged terror module recently busted by the Uttar Pradesh police, had to say after the arrest of his father.
Their father's long and unexplained absence from the house had left them puzzled too, he said.
Khan and Azhar were arrested on Thursday. Azhar had given the police a slip as a mob surrounded a police team that went to arrest him at his shop in Rehmani Market on Monday evening.
The family resides in the same Jajmou area where alleged terrorist Saifullah was gunned down by security forces.
Qadir distanced himself from his father for the latter's alleged terror activities, claiming that he didn't know Saifullah or anyone else.
Abdul Qadir said:
“It is well known that I or even other family members don't get along with my father. I run a shoe business in Lucknow and on the day the encounter was taking place, my father came to my shop asking me to accompany him to Kanpur. Till that point I had neither known nor suspected anything about his possible involvement in terror activities,” said Abdul.
“Once in Kanpur, he said let's go to Rae Bareli where my mother's maternal family lives. It was unusual, considering my father and my uncles don't get along. On our way he dropped out midway. Next morning we read about his alleged involvement and it got us scared. We have no regrets nor do they sympathise with him.
“We never contacted him. If he is arrested..let him be we have nothing to do with him. We don't regret anything. If he is a traitor he should be treated as such. If he is not with the country, we aren't with him. I don’t know where he stayed in Lucknow where he had taken a place on rent for the past couple of years.”
