He was, by all accounts, a "sweet" boy, from an upright family, the son of a senior military officer whose success was a source of pride in the village.
So family friends and relatives of Faisal Shahzad found it hard to square that version with the one emerging out of New York - a would-be bomber alleged to have tried to unleash mayhem and terror in Times Square.
Residents of Mr. Shahzad's ancestral village of Mohib Banda, a 20-minute drive outside the city of Peshawar were proud of the accused man's father, Baharul Haq, who had worked his way up in Pakistan's air force from an ordinary recruit to Air Vice Marshal, the equivalent of a two-star general.
"The whole village knows the family. They are first-class people. This news was horrible for us. If he [Mr. Shahzad]did it, it was wrong, but the whole village, the whole country should not be tarnished with this," said a man who went by the name Jahanzeb.
Mr. Shahzad's older brother, Amir Shahzad, is a mechanical engineer based in Canada, said Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Mr. Shahzad's father, in an interview in his office in Peshawar, where he works as a lawyer.
Mr. Shahzad's parents disappeared Tuesday from their main home, in Peshawar, just before media discovered the house. There are suggestions that they might be in protective custody of the Pakistani authorities.
Family friend Faiz Ahmad said he noticed changes in Mr. Shahzad following his marriage about three years ago. It was only in more recent years that Mr. Shahzad started to keep a beard, he said - beards are often signs of deeply observant Muslims.
"He used to be the kind of boy who would play around. But after his wedding, he wasn't the same person. He was more withdrawn. He became more quiet," said Mr Ahmad. "But we can't believe that Shahzad was involved in such a thing."
Mr. Shahzad moved around during his childhood, following the postings of his father. That included spells in the towns of Mianwali, Sargodha and Rawalpindi. He was educated mostly in schools run by the air force, relatives and family friends said.
The whereabouts of Mr. Shahzad's wife, Huma Mian, and two young children, was unclear. Kifyat Ali, the cousin of Mr. Shahzad's father, said that she was living with her in-laws in the Peshawar home. Other reports said she was in Karachi or even Saudi Arabia, where own parents live as expatriate workers.