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Mariyam Khatoon sits restless – trying to be patient while fretting over the circumstances and consequences of her husband Alimuddin Ansari’s brutal end.
Fifty-six-year-old Alimuddin of Manua village in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district found himself surrounded by an enraged mob of at least 10 at Sanichar Bazar in Ramgarh town on Thursday morning.
He was accosted by a frenzied mob who suspected Ansari was carrying beef in his car.
The Bajrang Dal killed my husband, she says.
Rather than a spontaneous expression of anger, the lynching was premeditated as everything transpired fast enough to cause irreparable damage.
Oblivious of what was to come Ansari was suddenly intercepted by men who pulled him out of his white Maruti van and began kicking and beating him with sticks. The frenzied crowd set his car on fire and made a ring around him, injuring him grievously.
After the police reached Sanichar bazar town where Ansari was, they took him to the police station first.
This entire ordeal took at least 25 minutes.
According to the police Alimuddin died on the way to the hospital.
The family’s distrust towards the police was palpable.
His eldest daughter, 23-year-old Samma Parveen, gave birth to her second daughter a month ago and is still recovering from surgery. In that condition, she travelled from Calcutta to Ramgarh to tend to her family in time of distress.
On the evening of her father’s death, Samma said 600 women from the village had gathered to refuse to take his body from the police in spite of repeated requests.
When the police came back for the third time on the evening of his death, the family agreed to take the body back out of exhaustion. “We took the body back due to the pressure of everyone around us,” Samma said.
Friday morning they buried him in a kabristan half a kilometre from their house. Hundreds attended the funeral, from Manua and nearby villages. Most of the attendees were Muslims.
Inspector Kamlesh Paswan from Ramgarh police station said they’ve deployed men across sensitive areas of the district. “There are men in Manua village, the cremation grounds, the local temple and Sanichar bazaar,” Paswan said.
Section 144 was imposed on all districts of Ramgarh on Friday, disallowing more than 4 persons from gathering anywhere.
However in Manua village, unrest is incontestable.
The community echoes how Muslims are being targeted, not only in Jharkhand but across the country, and police are indifferent.
One major grudge Ansari’s family holds against the police is that a police baton surfaced in videos of the mob lynching.
The police said the matter was under investigation.
Ten arrests have been made in total of which five persons were named in the FIR; Santosh Singh, Chhotu Rana, local BJP leader Nityanand Mahato, Deepak Mishra and Chhotu Verma. The other five persons have been arrested on the basis of evidence. “There role is apparent due to the evidence collected by our investigation teams,” SP Kishore Kaushal said.
The Muslim community in Ramgarh has come together and rallied behind Ansari’s family to call for an end towards attacks on the Muslim community.
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