Alwar: Lynching victim’s kin threaten self-immolation
Pehlu Khan’s family members. File Pehlu Khan’s family members. File
RELATIVES OF Haryana resident Pehlu Khan, who succumbed to injuries two days after he was assaulted on April 1 on the suspicion of smuggling cows, have threatened self-immolation if the family does not get justice. Emphasising the immolation threat, Pehlu’s nephew Abdul Qayyum on Monday said, “It has been more than two weeks since the incident, and the main accused have still not been arrested.”
Qayyum and six other relatives of Pehlu were in Jaipur on Monday to take part in a protest called by civil rights organisations, led by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and some political outfits. “We wanted to meet Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje but we did not know she is in Odisha. We will keep returning (to Jaipur) until we get justice,” Qayyum said.
On April 1, Pehlu, 55, sons Irshad and Aarif, and two others, Azmat and Rafiq, were on way home after buying bovines from a fair in Jaipur when they were stopped and assaulted by self-claimed gau rakshaks, or cow vigilantes, on NH-8 in Behror, Alwar.
“Pehlu could have been saved had he been admitted in a hospital in Jaipur or Gurgaon,” the victim’s uncle, Husain Khan, said. “The entire community is terrorised (by the attacks by cow vigilantes).” He said Pehlu’s sons Irshad and Arshad are still recovering from the assault and thus could not join them.
At the protest, social activist Swami Agnivesh said people who lynched Pehlu Khan on April 1 should be booked under anti-terror laws, as they are “spreading terror”.
Naeem Rabbani, whose Jaipur hotel Hayat Rabbani was sealed last month following rumours that it was serving beef, recounted how he was targeted by gau rakshaks over just “rumours”.
PUCL state president Kavita Srivastava reiterated civil right organisations’ demands that all FIRs against Pehlu Khan and others should be closed, all attackers listed in the FIR be immediately arrested, Azmat should be shifted to a good hospital in Gurgaon, and Rs 1 crore compensation for Pehlu’s kin and Rs 10 lakh to the injured for rehabilitation and recovery.
Besides PUCL, the Communist Party of India, the All-India Democratic Women’s Association, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Students Islamic Organisation and Welfare Party, among other organisations, have called for resignation of state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria for “glorifying and lauding criminals”, and removal of the Alwar Superintendent of Police for “failure of due diligence”.
They have demanded a single-window system to provide all necessary documents to those buying cattle. The family will next hold a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on April 19.
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