Mod Fareed, beaten to death by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh on 18 June, was targeted because he was Muslim, amounting to hate crime and mob lynching, according to a fact-finding report by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and the All India Central Council of Trade Unions.
The report released on 29 June, says Mohd Fareed was returning home after finishing his day’s work, and he was confronted by a gang of locals near a by-lane in the Mamu Bhanja area on 18 June. He was first identified as a Muslim and attacked with the intention to kill, says the report.
After being brought to Malkhan Singh Hospital with injuries, Fareed died while receiving treatment. Fareed suffered 22 injuries from beatings with a baton, three broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a cracked skull before dying from profuse bleeding, according to the post-mortem report.
“On the night of 18th June, a 138-second video emerged showing about 15 individuals, some armed with lathis, cornering and bashing a man. The victim is shown pleading with the mob to spare him. In another 109-second video, the same crowd is asking the victim to identify his associates who were supposedly doing a ‘recce’ in the neighbourhood. Someone in the mob shouts, ‘Break his knees.’ It was through these videos that Fareed’s siblings found out that their brother was being attacked by a mob,” read the fact-finding report.
Mamu-Bhanja is a market in central Aligarh, where Fareed was lynched, is less than a km away from Aligarh junction. “The entire market is filled with loud graffiti of ‘Jai Shree Ram’, much like most upper caste dominated areas all over the country,” according to the report.
The report says about Fareed and his family: “Fareed was a 35-year-old casual worker who used to carry a portable tandoor and cook rotis in parties around the city. Fareed was dependent on his daily wages and would earn around Rs. 400 a day. He was the sole earner of his household. His mother, a survivor of paralysis, suffers from multiple long-term illnesses and was dependent on him for her treatment. All of Fareed’s neighbours described him to be a hardworking and well-intentioned individual. Fareed has two brothers and three sisters. Two sisters and one brother live in the adjacent by lanes of the same mohalla. It was around 10.30 in the night, when one of the neighbours reached Fareed’s brother with the video asking him if this was his brother. Fareed’s older brother who has been living in Ballabhgarh for the past few years immediately left for Aligarh as he got the news.”
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
