Hailing from a lower middle class family and spending most of his childhood in Gauthaminagar township, a “mini-India” in Telangana, Mohd. Taufeeq, 26, of Aswapuram, allegedly got radicalised by “pro-jihadist” propaganda of transnational terrorist outfits like Islamic State on social media before being killed in a “shootout” with security personnel in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.
News of the death of Taufeeq, 26, the only son of Mohd. Razak, a technician of the Heavy Water Plant at Manuguru, in an encounter with the security forces, along with two other suspected militants in the Kashmir Valley on Monday, came as a rude shock to the residents of Gauthaminagar colony.
His parents as well as the residents of the colony were in utter shock and disbelief by the reported claims made by some transnational terrorist outfits that Taufeeq was one among the three “jihadists” killed while fighting on their behalf in Kashmir.
His family members as well as intelligence agencies concerned were taken unawares by the way Taufeeq, a polytechnic diploma dropout, allegedly embraced “jihadi ideology” and ventured into Kashmir to fight alongside the local militants.
On hearing the news, some relatives of Mr. Razak rushed to his quarters in the township but found it locked.
Mr. Razak, a lower rung employee of the HWP at Manuguru, a unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), brought up his three children, including two daughters, with great care in the township, known for the peaceful co-existence of employees from all over the country, recalled a resident who did not wish to be quoted.
The father performed the marriage of his two daughters and encouraged his son to pursue technical education. But the youth shattered his father’s hopes by leaving his diploma course midway and joining the militant ranks, he said.
Father in distress
“I tried to carve out a bright future for him but he pursued a wrong path,” rued Mr. Razak.
Speaking over phone from his relative’s house in Kallur, Mr. Razak said: “My efforts to make him a well-educated and resourceful person has gone in vain. There is no point in discussing a person who has proved himself of no use to his family or country.”
