Sidra Fatima, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: It was supposed to be a day of joy. The courtyard of Anwar’s sister’s house at Handia in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj was alive with music and celebration. Flowers lined the doorways. Fairy lights blinked gently across the terrace. Elderly women sang songs from memory. Men laughed over stories from their youth. A wedding was underway. Everything was perfect until the phone rang.
Anwar, 42, answered. The voice on the other end said, “A mob of 15 people is beating your son.”
Within minutes, Anwar, his younger son Abdullah, 19, and his brothers rushed out. The location was barely a kilometre away from the wedding house, near Sirsa Chauraha.
When they arrived, they said, they saw 21-year-old Anas being beaten on the road. They ran in to save him. What happened next turned a day of celebration into one of blood and trauma.
Before they could understand what was happening, the attackers turned on all of them. The night ended not at the wedding house, but in a hospital ward, with the family fighting for their lives.
Parking Dispute Turns Deadly
According to Abdullah, the trouble began earlier that day, on July 14, when Anas parked his motorcycle outside a shop. The shopkeeper, identified as Aman Bhartiya, objected. He allegedly hurled a slur, calling Anas “Katwa” and demanded he move the bike immediately.
“My brother spoke politely and said, ‘I will move it, just give me five minutes,’” Abdullah told TwoCircles.net.
In the meantime, a juvenile walked over. The same group of people allegedly told the boy to push the motorcycle over. He obliged. When Anas questioned why, he was allegedly struck hard from behind.
Anas tried to flee, but he was soon surrounded by at least seven men. They attacked him brutally – punching, kicking and using a knife, according to the family.
By the time Anwar, Abdullah and others arrived, Anas was lying bloodied on the street. When they asked the mob who had done it, no one replied. Instead, the group turned on them.
A man – unknown to Abdullah – allegedly approached with a cleaver and tried to strike Anas again. Abdullah stepped in. The blade sliced through his thumb. He needed nine stitches.
“They were about to strike Anas with a cleaver, so I put my hand in to stop them. As soon as I did that to protect my brother, my thumb got cut,” Abdullah narrated the horror.
Then, another blow. A man from the mob reportedly picked up a steel bench from a nearby shop and smashed it on Anwar’s head.
“A man from the mob struck my father on the head with a bench, causing him to collapse immediately,” Abdullah said.
The family managed to escape and rushed to the hospital. Abdullah and other relatives were treated with first aid. Anwar was diagnosed with a fractured frontal bone and advised to get urgent surgery outside Prayagraj.
This correspondent attempted to speak with Anwar and Anas, but both were too injured to respond.
An FIR was filed soon after. Five people – Aman Bhartiya, Yogesh Bhartiya, Pratap Bhartiya, Mithun Bhartiya and Ravi Kumar Bhartiya – were arrested. The police recovered two cleavers, two wooden sticks and an iron rod from the spot.
What began as a wedding turned into a scene of violence, shaking an entire family and leaving a community in shock. All over a parked motorcycle and a word that should never have been said.
