Click to play videoBangalore: After a 25-day harrowing ordeal in Australia, freed terror suspect Mohammad Haneef received a hero’s welcome when he reached Bangalore.
On Sunday, as Haneef walked home a free man he had to push through not just a huge media contingent and police personnel but neighbours and onlookers all of whom had laid out a virtual siege around his house.
A visibly relaxed man, Haneef looked a wee bit tired but was happy to be home.
“It’s an emotional moment for me to be with my family and you all here. After a long wait I am finally home. I thank you all,” an emotionally charged Haneef read from a brief statement.
Sources have told CNN-IBN that perhaps Haneef was advised not to talk much about his experiences lest it would hamper relations between India and Australia.
Accompanied by his cousin Imran Siddiqui, who had gone to Australia to help him in his legal battle against Australian authorities, and lawyer Peter Ruso, Haneef reached Bangalore from Bangkok late on Sunday evening.
At home, it was not just a happy reunion but an emotionally charged one. Wife Firdaus who has stood steadfast behind her husband on Sunday remained behind closed doors.
“She (Firdaus) is very happy but it’s an emotional moment for her,” Haneef’s father-in-law Humayun Siddqui said as joyous relatives thronged Haneef’s residence.
It is believed that soon after the freed doctor returned to Bangalore, he drove straight from the airport to Madina Masjid and offered namaaz.
Haneef, arrested on July 2 on charges of involvement in the failed UK bombings was set free on July 27 after the charges were dropped in the face of crumbling evidence against him by Australian authorities.
Australian prosecutors had told a court that Haneef's SIM card was found in the burning Jeep that had been driven into an airport terminal in Glasgow.
However, prosecution lawyers agreed on Friday that the SIM card was in fact found at bomber Sabeel's home in Liverpool.
Haneef had all along said that he had left his SIM card with Sabeel in Liverpool in mid-2006, when Haneef left Britain to work in Australia.
(With inputs from Shweta Ganesh Kumar)
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