Puzzling Plot

Friends and neighbours find it hard to accept Subahani Haja Moideen’s transformation from eccentric to international terrorist

- Cithara Paul

SUBAHANI HAJA MOIDEEN’S blood group is AB positive and blood-donor groups in his native Thodupuzha, a buzzing town in Kerala’s Idukki district, have his number saved on their phones. His would be the first name they would call in case of emergencies.

All this was much before a team of French investigators flew down to Kerala on December 5 to interrogate Subahani in connection with the 2015 Paris terror attacks in which 130 people were killed. Subahani was arrested in 2016 by the National Investigation Agency for being a “trained Islamic State fighter’’. He is now lodged in Viyyoor central jail near Thrissur, pending trial.

For people in Thodupuzha, the 33-year-old was a maverick and a nutcase. Not many of them, however, are willing to talk about “Subahani, the terrorist”. His friends and neighbours find Subahani’s transformation from “weirdo’’ to trained terrorist confusing. “We find it tough to believe that the French investigation team came just to interrogate an abnormal guy like Subahani in connection with the Paris terrorist attacks. Perhaps, only abnormal guys kill people hoping for heaven after death,’’ said P.A. Saleemkutty, Subahani’s neighbour.