Times Colony, until now just one Urdu-dominated neighbourhood of educated middle class Aurangabad residents, is now also home to an address that evokes instant uneasiness and suspicion: Plot No 14/B, Times Colony, the residence of Dr Mohammed Abdul Mateen, one of those picked up by Mumbai Police for involvement in two bomb blasts in the city in early December. Residents here haven’t stopped talking — in hushed tones — about the dramatic arrest last week. Mateen was reportedly picked up moments after he walked out of a nearby mosque, bundled into a vehicle and driven to Mumbai. The incident caused a flutter since the unsuspecting residents took it for a kidnapping. Mateen’s family even got in touch with authorities at the Jinsi police station. The puzzle unfolded only after senior local policemen got in touch with the Mumbai police and were told of the arrest. Until that moment, Mateen had been like any other young medical professional. Having schooled in Zakir Hussain High School, he completed his post-graduation in medicine from Government Medical College, Aurangabad, and began working as a lecturer. Married just two weeks ago, he lived with an extended family, most of who have equally studious backgrounds, in one of the colony’s common-walled bungalows.The news of Mateen’s alleged complicity in the BEST bus bomb blast in Ghatkopar and his alleged links with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was shocking for the colony. Enough so to have Mateen standing disowned by colleagues and batchmates. The reasons are obvious. Besides the Ghatkopar blast, he is also wanted by the Aurangabad city police for a blast that rocked the upmarket Nirala Bazaar area in Aurangabad nearly a month back.At the Government Medical College’s Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (FMT), shock and disbelief prevails among Mateen’s colleagues. His name remains on a board enlisting the department’s faculty members. Old colleagues and MBBS batchmates too can’t believe the just-revealed facets of a man they say was ‘‘average, soft-spoken and sincere’’.‘‘There were no complaints against him. He would complete all his legitimate assignments like conducting post-mortems, delivering lectures — as a dutiful subordinate,’’ says Dr S.D. Nanandkar, Professor and Head of Department of FMT at the Government Medical College. ‘‘Mateen didn’t show any extremist streak,’’ says another colleague. Dean of Aurangabad GMC, Dr Anand Malik, says: ‘‘For us, Mateen is just an absentee, since we are yet to be officially informed about his status.”At his residence, a tense and deathly silence prevails. ‘‘We couldn’t even have dreamt this. This is the first time anybody in our family is facing the police,’’ says younger brother Abdul Maliq, a first-year civil engineering student at the MIT College. Maliq insists there was little in his elder brother’s life beyond his job as a lecturer. ‘‘He would only go out to offer namaaz at the nearby mosque,’’ he says. (With Pramod Mane)
