Taha Masood Lamba, who was detained along with three others by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday for links with ISIS sympathisers, neither socialised with neighbours nor let his wife go out.
His neighbours in Kings Colony at Mailardevpally recalled that Taha was seen only when he walked out in the bylanes to visit a nearby mosque for namaz (prayers) five times a day.
Whenever his wife was spotted, she was clad in a burqa and the doors of their house on the upper floor of a two-storey building mostly remained closed.
“We stay on the same floor but hardly knew anything about them. I only know that there are two people in that house and they were wife and husband. We don’t know what he does for living,” said Nasreen Bhanu.
Hails from Maharashtra
Locals said Taha, who hails from Maharashtra, was residing in a rented house for the last six months.
On Saturday morning, his neighbours expressed shock and dismay on learning about NIA’s operation at his house and many were tight-lipped after they came to know that he had connections with ISIS sympathisers. “He was a five-time namazi and we never thought he could have links with terrorist sympathisers,” a woman living in the same locality said.
“He visited my shop every day to buy milk packet. He didn’t speak much,” said a grocer in the area.
Eight-hour raid
On Saturday morning, the investigators swooped on his house and conducted searches for more than eight hours, for his alleged links with people associated with the international terrorist outfit. He was taken to NIA regional office in Madhapur for further questioning.
Simultaneous searches were conducted at two more places in the city and one in Wardha of Maharashtra. The agency detained four persons and questioning is under way. The sleuths seized a large number of digital devices along with several incriminating materials.