Shamed since arrest,Ahmeds not sure if they can cheer now

Friends said Shabbir had kept a distance from his son,the eldest of four children,after his arrest. He had even left the village briefly after his son,once considered a “promising boy”,was branded a terrorist. But he returned to care for Zahira.

Aditya Kumar,a Sakri resident who met the family after the court verdict,said: “They do want to see Sabahuddin once but want to keep a distance from their son to lead a normal life.”

Ejaz Naqvi,Sabahuddin’s lawyer in Mumbai,is more forthcoming. “I am elated that the judgment is in our favour. The moment David Headley pleaded guilty in the US,where he accepted having done surveys for the 26/11 attack,our case was proved beyond reasonable doubt that Sabahuddin Ahmed was wrongly framed,” he said.

Shabbir,who won uncontested in the 2006 panchayat election to Sanaur ward,was proud of it as his village is Hindu-dominated; he had more Brahmin friends than Muslims. Kumar said the victory spoke a lot about his reputation. “But the family has fallen from grace after Sabahuddin’s arrest,” said Kumar,adding that the family had seven bighas of cultivable land.

Sabahuddin spent his childhood in the village and studied till Class XII at Pandual. He moved to Aligarh for a medical entrance but did not succeed. He also tried a pharmacy course but later took a computer course.

He was living in Lucknow and had apparently informed his family that he had got a “good job”. “The family had thought Sabahuddin had got a job but could not sense that he may have been working for a terrorist organisation,” said Kumar.