The last time Meer Sameh Mobasheer’s family saw him was when he walked out the door, munching on popcorn headed to an examination preparation class.
That was February 29.
For four long months, the family looked for him, considering and dismissing scenario after scenario: Maybe he ran away. Maybe he fell in love and eloped. Maybe he was kidnapped.
Through it all, Mobasheer’s family worried about another possibility: Maybe he was recruited by Islamists. On Saturday, the family learned their worst fear had become reality.
Relatives showed them a picture of Mobasheer posted on an ISIS-affiliated site that identified him as one of the attackers in the deadly attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka.
“That’s not my son, that’s not my son,” Meer Hayet Kabir said. “He was full of humanity.”
What went wrong?
Kabir broke down repeatedly as he spoke to CNN on Monday, wondering what went wrong and where.
He said his 18-year-old son was impressionable, but asked, “which teen isn’t?” Aside from that, there were few signs.
Mobasheer has spent the previous six months studying hard for his upcoming A-level examinations. But the family did notice one change: He had stopped sketching.
Kabir said theirs is an upper middle class family — he’s an executive in a telecommunications company.
Mobasheer was always interested in religion, and his family didn’t discourage his curiosity in his faith.
But his father said he told his son that if he wanted to explore further, he should read the Quran directly. He even gave Mobasheer an English translation of the Quran because he didn’t want his son to get a warped interpretation elsewhere.
Kabir said he has yet to identify his son’s body. The pain is still too raw.