Zahid was arrested by the Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) for allegedly conspiring to trigger the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26.

Zahid (26), has been living at Sandhi Avenue near Vishala Circle on the Sarkhej Highway for a year along with his parents, wife, an infant son, an elder brother and a sister-in-law. He has three sisters and a brother who is mentally unstable. He has also been running a mobile shop at the Alishan Complex in Danilimda area for the last 4-5 years.

Zahid had studied till VIII standard in an English medium Islamic school, after which he had to give up studies to support his family.

When Newsline visited Zahid’s one room, kitchen accomodation on Sunday, his parents—Qutubuddin and Badrunissa—had gone to court where DCB officials were to produce Zahid and eight other accused arrested in connection with the case. His two sisters, Saleha and Saesta, and wife Shabana were present at home along with a few relatives.

While Shabana refused to talk, Saleha refuted all charges levelled against Zahid. She said: “They say Zahid had gone to various places for training and that he provided vehicles for the blasts. He has not gone anywhere for the last five months. They are also saying that some of the meetings were held at our residence. We are not aware of any such meeting.”

Saleha lives in Juhapura. “He is a pucca namazi and cannot get himself into such activities," she added.

The DCB officers have said that Zahid had attended two terror-training camps in Kerala and at Halol in Gujarat. They said he is the key person who was contacted by the two masterminds of the blasts, Mufti Abu Bashir and a Mumbai-based computer hardware engineer named Abdul Subban Qureshi alias Tauqir, for local support.

Saleha said that Inspector Tarun Barot and other police officials had picked Zahid from his mobile shop in Danilimda area on July 31. Ever since, the police have allowed his parents to meet him only twice and that too for a few minutes.

“The police, in fact, asked us not to hire any advocate, as Zahid had been detained only for questioning and would be released soon. But they ultimately announced his involvement in the case,” said Saesta.

The family now plans to hire a single advocate for all the nine accused after contacting their relatives. They have claimed that they do not know the other accused in the case.