Sitting in his office on the ground floor just below their residence, 24-year-old Zumail Malik said his brothers Zubair, 22, and Zaid, 20, detained by the National Investigation Agency as terror suspects on Wednesday, had more ‘Hindu friends than Muslims’.

The brothers were apprehended from their Jaffrabad residence, about 10 hours after NIA sleuths knocked on their door and searched the house on the suspicion that the two were members of an Islamic State-inspired module that was planning an attack. Eight others were also arrested.

Mr. Zumail told The Hindu that his younger siblings mostly spent their spare time at home, adding that the members of the family did not enjoy enough privacy to be able to keep such a ‘secret’. “Our father takes all our phones at 11 p.m. so we sleep on time and wake up early morning for the day’s work,” he said. “We are four brothers and we all sleep in the same room.”

Describing a typical day, Mr. Zumail said that Zubair helped in the family business of manufacturing motors for air-cooler fans. “Zubair and I start the day at 9 a.m. and go home at 9 p.m,” he said. “On Sundays, sometimes, he would meet his friends; and he has more Hindu friends than Muslims.”

Zaid was a ‘shy’ college student, he added.

“We are not a conservative family and there was never any particular chatter about religion in the household,” said Mr. Zumail.