Vikram Raj/ Mubashir Naik
As incidents of mob lynching continue to grow throughout India, the threat among the minority communities is increasing with every passing day. On Tuesday morning, around 4 a.m., a 20 years boy was cornered by a violent communal mob in Rajouri and lynched.
The Kashmiriyat spoke to the relative of Aijaz Ahmed Dar, who said that 20-year-old Aijaz along with his friend was returning to his house at four, Tuesday morning after buying a buffalo to sell her milk in order to earn a livelihood.
“As soon as their car reached Moradpur village in Rajouri, some two-wheeler-borne men started pelting stones at their vehicle. The youth driving the vehicle tried to speed up but the vehicle slowed down amidst the barricading of Rajouri BSF Camps,” the family member said, adding, “Aijaz had been hit with several stones that pierced the front glass of the car.”
Taking advantage of this situation, the bikers attacked them with huge stones. In this stone pelting, the boy sitting next to the driving seat suffered a severe head injury due to which his head started bleeding.
“When the stones hit him, a part of his brain fell down as a shower of blood oozed out of his head, the mob did see that, however despite that, they did not stop chasing them,” the relative said quoting the only eyewitness.
On seeing this, the driver took the vehicle towards Rajouri Hospital. On reaching the hospital, the doctors referred him to Jammu hospital where Aijaz was declared dead. His body was handed over to the relatives after autopsy.
The relative of the victim, while talking to The Kashmiriyat said, “The deceased youth had not only suffered a deep injury on his head, but due to the stone pelting on him, one of his eye had come out. The youth was 20 years old and he was the only earning person in a family of six.
Saying that the family was extremely poor, he said, “The parents of this boy are patients and are suffering from serious illness; the father is paralyzed and there are three unmarried sisters in the house, he was the only bread-earner.”
The family has filed a case at the Police Station Rajouri under the FIR number 408/2021 under section 302/341/323/336/147/148 IPC has been registered in Police Station Rajouri and the Police is trying to trace the attackers.
The relative said that such incidents have increased in the Jammu region in the past few years. “This is the third incident in this locality that has witnessed such violence in a short span. Not only the family but the people around are afraid of this jingoism,” he said.
He said that their freedom of expression is also snatched. “If we raise actions against their atrocities and such incidents, they have to go through armed forces atrocities as before,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
Lynching of Muslims are a reproduction of supremacy. Ajaz Dar, 20 year old from Rajouri & only breadwinner of family was brutally beaten to death by communal murderers while he was taking a buffalo to his home. Another family lost his only beloved son to this new norm in India.
— saima_chowdhary #SOSPoonch (@ChowdharySaima) June 22, 2021
Incidents of Hate on the Rise
On May 15, 2019, Nayeem Shah and Azhar Ahmed, both residents of Killa Mohallah, Baderwah were travelling in a vehicle, when some persons opened fire on them near the Nalti area, some eight kilometres from Baderwah town. Nayeem died on spot but his companion received splinter injuries. It was alleged that the duo was transporting bovine animals in his vehicle.
Earlier in May, Two men returning from their fields after a busy day of work with the bulls at Danu and on their way to their native Bagni in Jammu, they were accused of cow slaughter, sharp-edged knives were forced into their hands, and videos of the duo with knives portrayed as meant for ‘slaughter’ of the animals were circulated widely on the social media handles.
On May 25, this year, Two families belonging to the Bakarwal nomadic community were assaulted by a group of men leaving several family members, in the Palak Manana area of Samba district in Jammu, frightened.
Radical cow protection groups in India have killed at least 44 people over the last three years and often received support from law enforcement and Hindu nationalist politicians, according to a 104-page report from Human Rights Watch published in 2019.
The report further said that 36 of the dead were members of India’s Muslim minority. About 280 people have been injured in more than 100 attacks between May 2015 and December 2018.