Police hint cow vigilantes killed cattle trader in Alwar
JAIPUR/ BHARATPUR: A 35-yearold man found dead on railway tracks in Rajasthan’s Alwar was killed by “anti-social elements” trying to stop cow smuggling, police said on Monday, possibly a rerun of the murder of Muslim trader Pehlu Khan earlier this year that triggered nationwide protests. ››
JAIPUR/BHARATPUR: A 35-year-old man found dead on railway tracks in Rajasthan’s Alwar was killed by “anti-social elements” trying to stop cow smuggling, police said on Monday, possibly a rerun of the murder of Muslim trader Pehlu Khan earlier this year that triggered protests.
Until now, police had denied any connection between the killing of Umar Mohammed, whose body was found on railway tracks in Alwar’s Ramgarh on Friday, and the recovery of a badly-damaged pickup van with cows found about 15km away the same day.
But after two days of investigations, Al war SP Rahul Prakash made a volte-face, saying the two incidents were linked and that the killers of U mar were“anti- social elements ”. But he refused to use the term‘ cow vigilantes ’, who have over the past year become synonymous with a string of attacks on cattle traders.
Prakash said an FIR for murder had been lodged on the basis of a statement by Ilyas Khan, Umar’s uncle. Police have taken in a suspect who has allegedly named five other attackers. Umar’s autopsy is held up due to objections from the family.
“The attackers were basically anti-social elements who attacked U mar and two other passenger soft he pickup as they were smuggling cows. They later asked somebody else to dump Umar’s body on the railway track,” said Prakash.
Umar’s pickup had three passengers, including him. Tahir Khan, one of the passengers, was found with a bullet wound and taken to a hospital in Ferozepur in Ha ryan a. He was later allowed togo home. It wasn’ t clear how he was wounded. The third occupant, Javed Khan alias Jabba, escaped unhurt and reached their native village Ghatmika in Rajasthan on Friday evening.
Umar’s killing is reminiscent of the murder of cattle trader P eh lu Khan who was way laid and lynched by cow vigilantes near Al war on April 1. Khan had documents to prove he wasn’t smuggling cows.
Recounting Friday’s incident, Tahir told HT at his home in Bharatpur that they had gone to Da us a to buy cows for dairy farming .“When we were returning, a group of six-seven men opened fire on us near Gov ind Ga rh. One of them was wearing a belt of bullets around his shoulder ,” he said.
“I sustained bullet injuries on my shoulder while Jabba (driving the van) managed to escape. I waslying in the field whenone of the men hit me with the end of a gun while the other said ,‘ Rake sh, he is dead’. Following that they left me.”
He added the men shot dead U mar. However, U mar’ s family is unwilling to buy this story.
“We feel that Tahir and Jabba are not telling us the complete truth as there are several discrepancies in their statements. When they returned to the village, they didn’t give us any satisfactory answer about my brother’s whereabouts,” Khurshid, a brother of Umar, told HT.
“They only said he will return home soon. They are constantly changing their statements.”
In Jaipur, Ilyas Khan, Umar’s uncle, refused to give permission for a post-mortem. He, along with representatives of Rajasthan Muslim outfits, met the Rajasthan police chief to demand a fair investigation into the incident.