A senior lawyer from Mewat has alleged police and district administration are trying to hush up the death of Ummar Khan, the dairy farmer killed by suspected cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar, under political pressure.
“This is not the first instance, rather it is the fourth incident in Rajasthan where mob has attacked while police and district administration tried to save the culprits,” Ramzan Chaudhary told inuth.com. The assailants left Mohd Tahir, the other victim at track thinking he was also dead, he added.
Two Muslim men were attacked by suspected cow vigilantes on Friday, November 10. While one of the victims, identified as Ummar Khan, died on the spot, the other victim- Tahir is battling for life at a private hospital in Haryana.
The incident took place near Gahangadh village of Alwar district where the duo was ferrying cows in a pick-up truck from Mewat in Haryana to Bharatpur in Rajasthan. The Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria stated that five cows were found in a vehicle, including one which was dead.
“Five cows were found in the vehicle, including a dead one. Later, a body was found which a family claimed belonged to its member. A case was filed and the body was sent for a postmortem and one suspect was arrested on Sunday… It can’t yet be said what is actually the case. We are sure the case will be solved soon and the culprit will be punished,” he told reporters.
Khan’s body was found near the railway tracks on Saturday. The vigilante attack has infuriated the locals with the area’s Meo community launching a strong protest against the incident. The head of Meo community panchayat, Sher Mohammad, alleged that the cow vigilantes killed Umar and then threw his body at the railway tracks to make it look like an accident.
Video grab shows the attack on dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in Alwar district on April 1. (File photo)
He said that even if Umar Khan was involved in cow smuggling, there are laws to deal with smugglers. “Who has given the cow vigilantes the right to take the law into own hands? Police should act against cow vigilantes,” he said.
Mohd Aarif, an activist with the human right organisation Aman Biradari in Haryana, said Tahir was a dairy farmer who was returning to his village when he was attacked by a mob of six to seven people near Gahangadh village, which is under the jurisdiction of Govingadh police station.
Notedly, Umar Khan is the 31st person to have been killed in cow-related hate crimes since 2010, shows the IndiaSpend database that records such violence.
With this, 31 persons have been killed in cow-related hate crimes since 2010 shows the IndiaSpend database that records such violence: https://t.co/SIlejC4XFo (3/5) pic.twitter.com/gNws86edND
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) November 12, 2017
Social worker Maulana Haneef said that Khan, along with two others, was ferrying cattle in a vehicle when unidentified men opened fire at them. Khan died on the spot, while another suffered bullet injuries.
An FIR has been registered at Govindgarh police station under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence) against unidentified people, based on a complaint lodged by Umar Khan’s family members.
Indian Express
Meanwhile, Tahir has named one Rakesh as one of the accused. Umar’s uncle Ilyas told The Indian Express, “Javed was the only one who managed to escape. He recounted to me that they were attacked by gunmen. He said he barely managed to escape and that he doesn’t know about the fate of the other two.”
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is going to visit Alwar for the upcoming bypolls tomorrow, may face protest from the locals.
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