By Zafar Aafaq | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – A forty-two-year-old farmer Shabir Chuadhary was lynched by an alleged gang of eve teasers near his home in Phalian Mandal village in Satwari Police limits on the outskirts of Jammu city on Thursday evening.
The victim’s relatives allege that it was a pre-planned murder by the gang which belong to a “non-Muslim Community”. They accused a person named Mahesh of masterminding Shabir’s murder.
The attack comes at a time when Muslim Gujjar community are facing tough times in Jammu.
Mahesh, they say, is a history-sheeter and has recently been to jail. He was accused of teasing and harassing women and girls from Gujjar Muslim community, a minority in Jammu, in his locality. The community had on several occasions raised complaints about his misbehaviour with elders from the majority Hindu community. Couple of weeks ago, he was caught by people and handed over to police.
“He came out after spending six days in police custody,” said Naseeb Ali Chaudhary, who identified himself as a cousin of Shabir. According to him, Mahesh and his gang started threatening men from Muslim community.
“They targeted Shabir because he had raised objections about Mahesh’s actions,” Naseeb alleged while talking to Clarion India on Sunday.
Naseeb said that on Thursday evening a man named Liaqat Ali came to Shabir’s home and asked for accompanying him to a market away from the locality to buy “halal meat”.
The duo rode a bike. Half-kilometer on the road, a group of goons led by Mahesh waylaid them. According to the account shared by Naseeb, they first hit Liaqat who somehow ran away. Then they pounced on Shabir. “They used sharp weapons to attack him,” Naseeb said. “He received grievous injuries.”
Nasseb added that the attack took place in an area dominated by non-Muslims from Basha community . “When they found that Shabir was fatally injured, they tried to hush up.”
Meanwhile, Liaqat called Shabir’s home and told his wife that he was in trouble. Shabir’s wife and son quickly rushed to the spot. “They found him lying on the road, drenched in blood,” Naseeb said adding they quickly called the police which took half an hour to reach the spot. “By then he had lost a lot of blood.”
The police took him to a nearby health facility from where he was referred to Government Medical College Jammu.
Naseeb said Shabir told his sister and doctors there that he was attacked by Mahesh.
At around 11: 30 PM Shabir succumbed to his injuries.
Naseeb said doctors at the hospital told him that Shabir has been infected with coronavirus, therefore, they would not conduct post-mortem on him.
This would have weaken the case, so the family and people from Gujjar Muslim community protested. “We told the police and the doctors we will not take the body without post-mortem.” This forced them to do post-mortem led by a doctor named Dr Ishfaq. His funeral took place at around 4 PM.
Naseeb said while they were in hospital they heard that police arrested Mahesh, the accused.
Naseeb says that Shabir completed a ‘chilla’ last year with Tablighi Jamaat. Chilla is an Urdu word for spending 40 days in mosques and localities away from home Jamaat activities.
Naseeb said that Liaqat’s whereabouts are unknown since the incident took place. Naseeb suspects that Mahesh and his gang coerced Liaquat to work for them.
While condemning the murder of Shabir, comminty activist Zahid Parvaz Chuadhary said that the communal elements in Jammu are operating freely because they are not being reined in by the authorities. He said that the case should be investigated and justice should be delivered .
Former minister and PDP leader Nayeem Akhtar wrote a tweet asking the police to make the facts of the case public.
This story first appeared on clarionindia.net