Bengal Labourer Lynching: Mamata Offers Compensation to Family

The chief minister who had earlier condemned the attack, has offered a compensation of 3 lakh rupees to the family.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has offered compensation to the family of Mohammed Afrazul Khan, a daily wage labourer from Bengal’s Kaliachak in the Malda district, who was brutally murdered and then set on fire in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district on 6 December 2017. The chief minister tweeted:

Very sad incident happened in Rajasthan. Afrajul Khan of Malda of our state was brutally killed. His family is totally helpless. As a small help to the bereaved family, our government has decided to provide Rs 3 lakh to the family and ... 1/2

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 8, 2017

... also one job to the eligible person of the victim's family. Other help from the government will also be provided. I am sending our team of Ministers and MPs to visit the family 2/2

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 8, 2017

The village of Saiyadpur in the Kaliachak sub-division of the Malda district in West Bengal has been in shock since the evening of 6 December. The news, of course, still hasn’t been completely absorbed by Gulbahar Bibi and her three daughters. Around 3pm on Wednesday, she was informed over the phone of her husband, Mohammed Afrazul Khan’s horrific killing.

Afrazul, a 55-year-old daily wage labourer in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan was brutally beaten up with agricultural tools and then set on fire by a man who has been identified as Sambhulal Raigar. He was seen saying that anyone who commits “jihad” will be met with the same fate, in a gruesome video of the murder that went viral.

Village, Family in Shock; Police on Alert

A visibly shaken Gulbahar Bibi is unable to talk because of the shock, but informs The Quint that she last spoke to her husband on Sunday, 2 December. She lives with her three daughters Jyotsna, Regina and Habiba. The first two are married, while Habiba is now in class 9. Regina was the last person in the family to speak to her father on Tuesday.

The family says they did not have inkling of such an incident happening when they spoke to him. They do not understand what provoked the attack.

Meanwhile, the Kaliachak police station, which was burnt down in 2016 in an alleged incident of communal violence remains on high alert lest the issue takes a violent turn in the area. There have been no violent incidents reported so far, say the police.

Victim's Family Refutes Claim of an Affair

According to some reports Afrazul was said to be having an extra-marital affair in Rajasthan, but his family has refuted all such allegations.

My father was not having any affair. This is all a lie! My husband used to stay with him. Wouldn’t he have found out and come and told us? I don’t want to hear false news about my father.

Regina Khatoon, Afrazul Khan’s daughter, to The Quint

A distraught Regina also said that the family demands a death sentence for the perpetrator. “We are making a demand to the government. If they do not give this the strictest punishment then they will be responsible for my father’s death,” she said.

She also said that Afrazul was the only male member in the family, and now her sisters and mother have been rendered support-less.