Zubeda at the news conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Sept. 17: The parents of blasts mastermind Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer today said they didn’t know where their son was but urged him publicly to “prove his innocence”.

“Wherever he is, he should come out and prove his innocence. If he is proved guilty, punish him in front of me,” sobbed Zubeda Qureshi, under pressure from the investigators of the Delhi and Ahmedabad explosions. Family lawyer Mubin Solkar deepened the mystery on his whereabouts, claiming “they don’t know if he is dead or alive”.

Zuebda said there had been no contact with Tauqeer since 2001 and the family had no knowledge of his alleged role as a Simi ideologue. Under pressure, they issued a written statement at a press conference here, signed by Zubeda and her husband Usman, saying it was “impossible to believe” their son would indulge in terrorism.

Tauqeer, on the radar of Mumbai police and intelligence agencies since the train blasts of July 11, 2006, has emerged a prime suspect in the Ahmedabad and Delhi attacks.

Sleuths suspect it was the 27-year-old computer engineer who hacked WiFi Internet connections to send emails in the name of Indian Mujahideen before the blasts.

Zubeda, in her late 50s, appealed to her son to get in touch “with the media or the police to prove his innocence”. “We have no hesitation to state that if our son is guilty of what he is accused of, he deserves to be severely punished after being given an opportunity of fair trial.”

Solkar said Tauqeer married in 2001, moved to a flat in faraway Mira Road from the parents’ home in south Mumbai’s Dongri area and lost contact with them ever since.

“Since 2006, he hasn’t been in touch with his wife and three children. After the July 11 blasts, the police came looking for him and questioned his family. But he was never accused in that case or any other,” Solkar said, adding “we don’t even know if he is dead or alive”.

The parents said Tauqeer had never showed signs of being a fanatic or fundamentalist. “Like all middle class families, we have a dream for our children and grandchildren that they get the best of education and lead a respectable life. Today like every citizen, we feel insecure about the safety of our near and dear ones due to the blasts. To our horror, our son has been accused of being involved in some of these,” they said in the statement.

Clerics slam outfit

Muslim organisations, including the All India Ulema Council, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Raza Foundation and Jamiat-e-Ahle-Hadees, have condemned the Indian Mujahideen and questioned the existence of such an outfit.

“A perusal of the emails (sent by the outfit before the blasts) betrays its ignorance about the real teachings of Islam,” the organisations said in a joint statement today.

The clerics accused the outfit of playing into the hands of Sangh Parivar and saffron organisations by indulging in acts that isolated Muslims ahead of elections. The emails had said the blasts were a revenge for the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and the Gujarat riots in 2002.