Albuquerque police detained a 51-year-old man named Muhammad Syed for his alleged involvement
in the murder of two Muslim men. A police probe into the murder of four Muslim
men had New Mexico worried. There were concerns with regard to the motive of
the killings. Now, law enforcement has discovered that Muhammad Syed may have
acted on personal grudges, possibly with intra-Muslims sectarian overtones.

When
questioned by the police, Syed has denied his involvement with any of the four
murders, New York Times reported.

“We’re in
complete disbelief,” said Mula Akbar, an Afghan-American businessman who had
helped Syed settle in Albuquerque. “You know, kind of embarrassed to say he was
one of our own. His hatred of Shi’ites might have had something to do with it,”
Akbar said.

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Muhammad Syed
belongs to the Sunni branch of Islam. He and the four killed used to pray
together at Albuquerque’s Islamic Center of New Mexico (ICNM) mosque. Three of
the four were from the Shiite branch of Islam. One of them was killed in
November and three others over the last two weeks.

Police said
on Tuesday they were working with prosecutors on potential charges for murders
of Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old truck driver who was killed on Friday, and
Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, who was shot dead on November 7, 2021.

Also Read | Albuquerque shootings: All you need to know

While there
are rumours doing the rounds that Syed was angered at the fact that his
daughter had decided to marry a Shiite man. His daughter told CNN that her
father was not happy with her choice of husband when she got married but had
turned more accepting over time.

“My father
is not a person who can kill somebody. My father has always talked about peace.
That’s why we are here in the United States. We came from Afghanistan, from
fighting, from shooting,” she told CNN.