Lucknow encounter: Saifullah was shot dead after a near 12-hour-long stand off.
Highlights
- Saifullah had gone to Mumbai 2 months ago, told family trip was for visa
- He had dropped out of Bachelor of Commerce course after 2nd year
- His father refused to accept his body, saying 'traitor' can't be his son
What made 22-year-old Saifullah accept the ISIS worldview and turn against the country? Hours after his death following a
12-hour encounter in Lucknow, his devastated family is desperately trying to find an answer. Having dropped out the Bachelor of Commerce course after his second year, Saifullah had gone to Mumbai two months ago.
He had told his family that the trip was for a visa, since he wanted to go and work in Saudi Arabia. "Perhaps this is where he met those who brainwashed him. I want the police to find them and punish them" said his grieving brother Khalid Mohammad.
Mr Mohammad was the one the police had dialed last evening to help convince Saifullah to surrender. They had slipped the phone inside the house where Saifullah was hiding. "For over an hour I kept speaking on the phone, trying to persuade my brother to surrender," Khalid Mohammad told NDTV. "I kept talking. I did not hear his voice. Only gunshots."
Saifullah was the youngest of three brothers. Both his elder brothers and his father work as supervisors at local leather units. Their father Sartaj has refused to accept his body, saying a "
traitor" can't be his son.
The locals who kept vigil outside the family's one-storey house in Kanpur's Jajmau locality, remembered a different young man.
"Saifullah was a peaceful man and used to often pray at the local madrasa. Also, there was never any indication that he would take such an extreme step," one of his neighbours told NDTV.
The police have also arrested Saifullah's three cousins -- one of them from Madhya Pradesh -- following Tuesday's train blast.
According to sources, he had pointed out Saifullah's involvement to the police, leading to a raid at his Lucknow hideout.