By Meer Faisal
A normal day turned tragic for Bilal and his family. Bilal, a young businessman from Sambhal, left his home that morning to visit the market and check on his shop. But hours later, his family received a call that would change their lives forever. Bilal had been shot during clashes between the police and locals.
Bilal’s brother, Salman, remembers the moment he arrived at the hospital. “When I got there, my brother could barely speak. He whispered to me that the police shot him during the chaos. He said the police were shooting at anyone in sight, and one of those bullets hit him,” Salman recalled, his voice heavy with sorrow.
Bilal was transferred to a larger hospital in Moradabad, but he succumbed to his injuries on the way. The sudden loss has left his family in shock and filled with questions.
“My brother was just an ordinary young man trying to make a living. But now he’s gone, and we are left with unanswered questions,” Salman said, his voice breaking. “We just want justice. We want the police officers who shot him to be held accountable.”
The family alleges that their initial report to the police included the police as suspects in the shooting. However, according to them, the police pressured them to change the complaint. “The police forced us to change the complaint. They threatened us, saying, ‘This will not end well for you.’ When we mentioned he was killed in police firing, they removed it and threatened us again, saying, ‘This will not end well for you, and they will pick us up.’ Then, we were forced to change the complaint as per their directions,” Salman said.
Bilal’s father, Mohammad Haneef, was too distressed to speak much. “The police pressured us to change the report to match their version of events,” he said, his voice full of pain.
“I just want justice. I want the officers who killed my son to be punished.”
This story was originally published in theobserverpost.com. Read the full story here.
