Two Haryana men claim responsibility for Umar Khalid attack on social media

NEW DELHI: Two men from Haryana have claimed responsibility of the attack on Umar Khalid in a video posted on Facebook. They claimed, “by attacking Khalid we wanted to give a gift to the people on the occasion of Independence Day.” The two men identified themselves as Darvesh Shahpur and Naveen Dalal and appealed to the police not to “harass” others for the attack.

The man Naveen Dalal has also posted his mobile number on his Facebook page and claims to be the founder of some ‘Gau rakshak Sena’. The two men are seen holding the national flag in their hand and claiming responsibility of the attack. The background shows the video has been shot in some village. In a four-minute video being circulated on Whatsapp, the two young men said they would surrender at the house of Sikh revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha on August 17.

Umar Khalid tweeted a photo in which he recognised one of the attackers. “We are working on it. We will verify these two men and will question them for their claims,” said a senior Special Cell officer. The special cell of Delhi police has widened its search to Hary- ana and will also take the help of Haryana police to identify these two men.

Khalid was attacked by an armed assailant on Monday outside the Constitution Club of India where he had come to attend an event. The accused had fled from the spot after the attack and he is yet to be identified. The police is also trying to match the photo of the two persons with the attacker seen in the CCTV footage recovered from the spot. Though the photo of one seen running in CCTV is having a striking similarity with one man in the video. However, cops say that they will verify the two men claiming responsibility. A special cell team also recreated the crime spot outside the Constitution Clun where Umar Khalid was pinned down by the attacker and later allegedly fired a shot before fleeing leaving the gun behind.