Two cattle transporters were killed while a third was injured after allegedly being attacked by a mob in Arang near Raipur in the early hours of Friday.
The three victims – Guddu Khan and Chand Miya Khan (both deceased) and Saddam Qureshi (injured) – are all residents of Uttar Pradesh. With Mr. Saddam injured and unable to provide a statement till late Friday evening, the sequence of events remained unclear according to the police. But the victims’ families said they had been attacked by a mob.
Shoaib, a common relative of Chand and Mr. Saddam, who lives in Raipur and had come to visit Mr. Saddam at the Raipur Hospital, said a mob had attacked the trio. He mentioned two calls – one that he received from Chand while another that his friend Mohsin received from Mr. Saddam – to suggest that they were assaulted for nearly two hours.
‘Pleading for help, water’
“Around 1.45 a.m., I received a call from Chand. It was a brief one where he said that he was being attacked by some people. He said that the tyre of their vehicle had gone flat. But before he could provide any further detail, the call was disconnected. I suspect the attackers must have snatched his phone. I tried calling back Chand but the calls went unanswered,” said Mr. Shoaib.
“In the second call with Mohsin that was received nearly an hour later, and lasted 57 minutes, Saddam could be heard saying that his limbs were broken. He was pleading with the attackers to spare him. I was with Mohsin when he received the call. It seemed Saddam had put the phone in his pocket but had not disconnected. We heard him continuously asking for water. The attackers were abusing them and asking them what they intended to do with the cattle in the vehicle,” Mr. Shoaib said.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
