The residents of Sarai Meer are unwilling to talk either about Salem or the locality

For a district flung into obscurity like any other in Uttar Pradesh, Azamgarh is bizarrely flush with opulence. A study in brazen contrasts, its labyrinthine, dusty bylanes are dotted with palatial bungalows, with swimming pools set amid swathes of green. The Pathan Kot mohalla in Sarai Meer is one such locality. As lustily conspicuous is a multi-storeyed structure that towers over the adjacent homes. But in a strange defiance of its flashy exterior, a submissive silence sits on the house today. It may have something to do with the fact that it belongs to Abu Salem, one of India's most wanted criminals recently arrested in Portugal.

Salem's palatial house in Sarai Meer, with a roof-top pool under construction, wears an eerie silence after the arrest of its owner

Much like a disdained infection, the silence has spread to the entire locality. The men walking to the nearby mosque are unwilling to talk-about Salem, the mohalla or indeed Azamgarh. From being a repository of culture-writers and poets of global repute-the district has turned into a hotbed of criminals, a haven for terrorists and hawala operators with strong networks abroad, particularly in the Gulf. That Azamgarh runs a special bus to Lucknow airport for a flight to Sharjah is no coincidence. "Almost every family has at least one male member working in the UAE, Saudi Arabia or Sudan," says Dawa Sherpa, SSP, Azamgarh.

It has helped these families move from penury to luxury, with some like Abul Qalam, 60, owning a dozen cars and over 100 bighas of land. It has also spawned a thriving hawala racket, with lakhs of rupees seized from the district. Illiterate or semi-literate, most migrants find the hawala route easiest to send money back home. The official channels are too cumbersome and time-consuming. The hawala operators simply make a call, say, from Dubai to Azamgarh, and the money is delivered to the family within a day.

For the police, the prime concern is the siphoning off of the petro-dollars for illegal activities. Over the years, Azamgarh has become the catchment area for the Mumbai underworld. Youth from the district in hundreds have been held by the police in Maharashtra and Gujarat for kidnapping, extortion and contract killings. Investigation invariably leads to a link with Salem. The don, who has a strong network in Sarai Meer, recruited the youth, who would arrive in batches of four or five in Maharashtra or Gujarat, carry out the assigned tasks and return home. The successful were handsomely rewarded, but those who failed were killed to avoid identification or tracing.

The district is also said to have links with terrorists, with two Harkat-ul-Mujahideen members recently held from madarsas here. "Madarsas with students from abroad and states like Jammu and Kashmir are under surveillance," says a senior IPO officer. Under scrutiny is also the diversion of foreign funds for the madarsas' development which, like the houses, reflect the growing inequality in the villages. Many villages have no electricity, regular water supply or roads. Despite a population of over 40 lakh, Azamgarh district does not have any industry and half of its agricultural land is barren. So work is hard to come by. There are, of course, thousands of pcos, but they only cater to the affluent. So most people are tempted to migrate in search of jobs or take the easier way out: crime. Which, as the residents of Azamgarh are finding, doesn't always pay.