Hyderabad: A former military doctor living in the city has been served a notice by the Uttar Pradesh police to appear for questioning about an explosion that occurred at a mosque in Bairagi Patti village of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
Dr (Major) Ashfaq Alam, a resident of Janakinagar in Tolichowki, worked at the Military Hospital in Secunderabad till he took voluntary retirement in 2017.
On Thursday, a team of the UP police, Anti-Terrorist Squad and an intelligence unit of UP came to Janakinagar, which is under the Golconda police station.
They served the doctor a notice to appear for questioning at the ATS office in Lucknow in connection with the explosion that took place at the mosque in Bairagi Patti on November 11.
Dr Ashfaq’s grandfather Haji Qutubuddin is a cleric in the mosque in Bairagi Patti. On November 8, Dr Ashfaq had attended the wedding of a friend in the village and stayed with Haji Qutubuddin. It is said that he was close to the spot when the explosion took place. He returned to Hyderabad by train on November 12.
The UP police arrested four persons — Maulana Azeemuddin, Izhar Ansari, Aashik Ansari, and Javed — on Tuesday, while Qutubuddin was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border on Thursday.
According to sources, Dr Ashfaq was the one who informed the police about the explosion before he caught his train. Yet on Thursday, the UP police served him a notice to attend the questioning in connection with the blast.
Confirming the incident, a senior police officer from Hyderabad said, "Ashfaq was served notices by the ATS police of UP asking him to appear for questioning in connection with the case of an explosion at a mosque."
An official from Kushinagar district police of UP said “Ashfaq's grandfather Qutubuddin is the accused in the explosion case. Ashfaq is being questioned to find out his complicity. So far we have not arrested him.”
