The central government has declared the 10th November car blast in front of Delhi’s Red Fort, a heinous terror incident. As the investigation into the explosion began, Faridabad’s Al Falah University came under scrutiny with three of its doctors being arrested. On Wednesday (12th November), 800 police personnel conducted a search operation in the university campus and surrounding areas, and detained around 12 people.
After the Red Fort car bombing, OpIndia team reached Dhauj village in Faridabad, where Al-Falah University is located. By the time we reached the location, the Sun had set. We stood outside Dhauj village’s largest mosque, and tried to speak to villagers about terror accused, Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganai, and Al-Falah University. Most of them avoided speaking on the camera or maintained a distance, claiming they had no knowledge of the incident.
Among the few people, who spoke to us was, Haji Qasim, who was chanting the name of Allah in front of the mosque. Qasim said, “I have no information about the incident. I live in the mosque. We don’t know where and how many people were killed. We only chant the name of Allah in the mosque.”
A person named Amin said that the car bombing was a wrongful act and that whoever did it should be punished. Mohammad Iqbal, who came out of the mosque after praying, said, “I have no information about the incident. I just came to get my passport verified. The police did the right thing. Let the law take its course.”
Another local, Irfan, said, “The incident is caused by people from outside. In our village, he (terror accused Muzammil Ahmad Ganai) worked as a doctor at Al-Falah University. The university hired the doctor based on his degree, not because he was a terrorist. The incident has brought disrepute to our village, and we are ashamed of it.”
Interrupting the question about the terrorist leading prayers, another young man said, “Religion is one thing, and terrorism is another. There’s no connection between prayer and terrorism. Millions of students have graduated from Al-Falah University, and no one has ever done anything untoward. This is the first such incident. The Imam has no connection; he simply led prayers in the mosque.”
Another person standing nearby said that Doctor Sahib used to do good work of seeing patients and offering prayers, but we do not know anything about this accident that has happened. Resposding to the question if studying is all about detonating bombs, why study at all?, Irfan replied, “No parent educates their children to make them terrorists, but now we won’t be able to trust the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” Another man said, “The doctor (Muzammil) was well known throughout the area. He treated us well. We haven’t heard anything about him to this day.”
A man standing in front of the mosque said, “We used to go to the doctor to get medicine. We met him many times; he was a good man. He used to offer Namaz five times a day”. Notably, this large mosque in Dhauj attracts 1,000 to 1,500 people daily for prayer.
OpIndia team reaches the mosque where the terrorist used to offer namaz
Terrorist Muzammil also used to offer Namaz five-times a day at the Al-Falah University mosque. When we reached the mosque situated at the back of the campus, Rahimuddin, the landlord of the nearby house, told us that he (Muzammil) was a doctor in the emergency ward, and that he used to visit the mosque. “I also pray here. I never suspected anything like that. We would just exchange greetings. I only knew that he was from Kashmir,” Rahimuddin said.
Rahimuddin said that he has lived in he area for four years, and the mosque’s imam, Mohammad Ishtiyaz, has been here for nearly 20 years. He said that what happened was wrong and that the doctor (Muzammil) brought a bad name to the village. He added that after the bomb incident, the villagers would not be able to trust we won’t be able to trust anyone from Kashmir. Rahimuddin said that the university shouldn’t harbour such people.
We then inspected the imam’s house and the mosque. We learned that Al-Falah University built the mosque on an acre of land at the time of its establishment, costing millions of rupees.
Interestingly, Imam Mohammad Ishtiyaz led the prayers at the mosque five-times a day alongside terror accused Dr. Muzammil. The Imam gets his salary from Al-Falah University. The same Imam gave a house on rent to terror accused Muzammil in Fatehpur Taga village, where police recovered 2563 kilograms of explosives.