By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Students’ Islamic Organization of India (SIO), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, organised an Iftar get where families affected by “mob violence’ were invited to share their experiences and interacted with media persons and social activists.
The guests included family members of Najeeb Ahmed, Mohd Akhlaq and Pahlu Khan. The event started at 5:30 in the evening with victim family members sharing their ordeal and their experiences post the killing/disappearance of their loved ones.
Azmat Khan, neighbor of Pehlu Khan who was accompanying him on the day of lynching in Behror area of Alwar, narrated the sequence of the events leading to lynching. He said that the mob had stopped them with the intention to kill.
“Only the driver was allowed to go, whereas all the other persons in the vehicle were badly beaten. We even showed them all the necessary papers, but they didn’t wanted to hear a word and started beating us. The police instead of registering case against the culprits charged us under different sections.”
Azmat further alleged Alwar-based BJP and RSS leaders of involvement in the lynching episode. “No one has been arrested as of now,” he added.
Jumping in the conversation, Pehlu Khan’s son Arshad Khan, who was also accompanying his father alleged that his father was killed because he was sporting a beard.
“We were all clean shaven and my father was sporting a beard. It is the reason behind his killing,” Arshad alleged.
Further narrating the reason behind buying the cows, he said, “We had initially planned to buy a buffalo but it too costly and we couldn’t afford it that’s why we bought cows and we had all papers in procession to transport. Now, we even fear buying buffaloes.”
He said that no one from Haryana government have visited them. The lynching incident occurred on Saturday, April 1, when a group of self-styled cow vigilantes attacked dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in Behror area of Alwar. Khan, hailing from Haryana, died on Monday night, April 3 in hospital.
He was travelling in a truck with two cows and two calves, when the attackers accused him of illegally smuggling cows for slaughter. However, the evidence has pointed that he wasn’t carrying cows for slaughter and instead for dairy purposes.
From Akhlaq’s family his younger brother Jan Mohammad was present. While recalling the incident, he said, “He was beaten and dragged like he was not a human but animal. He was beaten by bricks and I even have a video of the same. And the irony is, 9 months after the lynching, police framed charges on us.”
He further claimed that there is a conspiracy behind the Akhlaq’s killing and it was a preplanned murder.
Regarding the claims of cow slaughter in Akhlaq’s house, Jan said that not even a chicken was slaughtered before the Eid.
“There was no meat in the house except a small bowl containing cooked mutton. There are lot of discrepancies in the police and forensics experts versions itself,” he added.
Akhlaq, a resident of Bisara village near Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, was lynched by a Hindu mob on September 28, 2015 for allegedly possessing and eating beef. The incident, which drew attention of international media, was widely condemned in India.
Fatima Nafees, mother of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed was crying while narrating the incident leading to her son’s disappearance. She alleged that accused are deliberately being saved by the police.
She said that Muslims are being deliberately targeted and argued all the Muslims to unite and come on one stage to fight against the atrocities being inflicted on the minority community.
“All victims here on the stage are Muslims, so we can say that they are mostly targeting Muslims. We (Muslims) must unite against their agenda, otherwise they will crush us,” she said.
“As a mother I didn’t get justice yet but he was an Indian citizen, at least give him justice in this capacity,” she said.
Fatima anticipates that she will definitely get justice one day.
Najeeb, 27, a first year M.Sc. student, went missing from his JNU hostel on the night of October 14-15 last year, allegedly after a row with members of RSS’ student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The event concluded with breaking of fast.
Mohammad Salim Engineer, General Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami, said that the idea of organising interaction with the families of mob lynching with media over Iftar is an answer to Muslim Rashtriya Manch (the RSS affiliate) Iftar organised in Jamia Millia Islamia.