Shabir Chaudhary, a 42 year old, Gujjar Muslim farmer was lynched by a gang of eve teasers near his home in Phalian Mandal village in Satwari Police limits on the outskirts of Jammu city on Thursday evening.
Chaudhary’s relatives allege that it was a pre-planned murder by the gang which belong to a person named Mahesh the mastermind of the murder.
Mahesh, 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 earlier has also 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. But he came out after spending six days in police custody.
Naseeb Ali Chaudhary, a cousin of Shabir said,Mahesh and his gang started threatening men from Muslim community. “They targeted Shabir because he had raised objections about Mahesh’s actions,” as per the reports.
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 some meat, then they rode a bike, Half-kilometer on the road, a group of goons led by Mahesh waylaid them. 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.”
Besides, Liaqat called Shabir’s home and told his wife about the incident. 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.”
Meanwhile, the Liaqat’s whereabouts are unknown after the incident. Naseeb suspects that Mahesh and his gang coerced Liaquat to work for them.
Naseeb added that the attack took place in an area dominated by non-Muslims from the Basha community. “When they found that Shabir was fatally injured,they tried to hush.”
The police took him to a nearby health facility from where he was referred to Government Medical College Jammu.
According to Naseeb, doctors at the hospital told him that Shabir has been infected with coronavirus, therefore, they would not conduct a 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 a post-mortem led by a doctor named Dr Ishfaq.
Naseeb said while they were in hospital they heard that police arrested Mahesh.
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 .