`Ran from the spot to save my life`: Alwar lynching eyewitness

While Gandhi attacked the idea of “New India”, being promoted by Modi and said the brutal killing of Rakbar Khan signifies that humanity can be replaced with hatred, the BJP on its part accused the Congress of “politicizing” the issue. Two persons have so far been arrested in the Alwar lynching.

“This case has been much discussed in the media recently, but nobody is asking why these incidents of violence happen”.

As local cow protection groups and officials trade allegations, certain curious facts have come up in the case. By the time they reached the spot, near Lalawandi in Ramgarh, one of the men, Akbar Khan (28), had been seriously injured. “I demand a judicial inquiry to ascertain whether he was lynched by the mob or beaten to death by police”, he said. Had he been taken to the hospital first, police itself has admitted that Khan could have been saved. The mob has not been identified yet and are efforts are on to trace them. “There should be a law against it”, Singh said. “The two boys stayed there and helped the police put him in the van”, he said. I spoke to the villagers and they told me that he was conscious when they handed him over to the police. “They know they will not do anything because the government does not want them to do anything”, he said.

“Since the policemen thought the victim was not serious, they made a decision to take him to the police station first so that the cows could be first shifted to a shelter”. Khan asked. “It’s surprising”. Akbar was announced brought dead on arrival.

Ramgarh police station SHO Subhash Sharma told the news agency that the people suspected Khan and his other friend were smuggling cows. We took him to a tube well nearby to clean him up, ” Sharma said. “One can get busy with certain things”. They point out that in the past targeted incidents of lynching, assault, beatings the assailants have not even been arrested with the police reluctant to file FIRs.

Meanwhile, Rakbar’s companion, Aslam, who escaped the lynch mob on the fateful night, has said that the attackers opened fire to stop them. “We will take the investigation to its logical and correct conclusion”. Now, his family, consisting of his wife and seven children, will have to think of ways to survive without their sole breadwinner.

The opposition Congress called it a horrific incident, which comes a little over a year after another Muslim man, Pehlu Khan, was allegedly killed by cow vigilantes.

In two prominent cases a year ago, a dairy farmer was killed on a roadside for transporting cows and a Muslim teenager accused of carrying beef was stabbed to death on a crowded train.