What the Doctor Ordered Continues ……….

He kept crying and mumbling to himself inaudibly. I was tempted to hold him and comfort him but held myself back. The doctor gradually came to terms with himself. Slowly, he regained his composure and began to talk about himself, his radicalization, the coming together of a committed group of people and so on. He was blurting out information as if he wished to purge himself of the immense reservoir of emotions bottled up inside him. He spoke so freely and rapidly that it was difficult to keep pace with him while recording his copious disclosures in black and white. Such an outpouring was nothing new for us. Many a time, when a criminal breaks down during an interrogation, he no longer wishes to hold back any information. All he wants is to get rid of every last secret buried in his psyche and be at peace with himself. He cares little for the consequences of his confession. In the police lingo of north India this is alluded to as ‘woh khul gaya’ (he has opened up).

Doctor Ansari poured his heart out and gave us the details of his life; how he had turned from being a benevolent physician to a radical fundamentalist and finally, a terrorist.
Jalees Ansari was born and raised in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh. A bright student with dreams of becoming a doctor, he moved to Mumbai to study medicine. By dint of hard work, he made it to Sion Medical College and successfully earned his MBBS degree. He joined the public health department of the then Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1983. He got married soon after and settled down in Mominpura, one of the many predominantly Muslim shanty towns of Mumbai. Deeply religious by nature, he came under the influence of Ahl-e-Hadees, a religious movement started in north India in the mid-nineteenth century that believes in following Islam in its original and purest form.


To be Continued ………….