‘No action against guilty. Then how are we going to ensure this isn’t repeated?’

Whennewsthathisunclehadpassedaway reached him on March 19, Mohammad Shahjad Alam was at his madrasa at Mubarakpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district. It was only after he returned home to Jharkhand two days later, he says, that he realised what had happened.

His uncle, Mohammad Majloom Ansari, 35, and 12-year-old Imtiyaz Khan were lynched,allegedlybyamobofcowvigilantes, at Jhabar village in Jharkhand’s Latehar district, and their bodies strung up on a tree. The two cattle traders, herding oxen to a fair in Hazaribagh, were accused of taking the animals for illegal slaughter.

“When I returned, all I could see was people in tears. The memories just refuse to fade. I don’t remember any celebrations at home since,” says Alam, sitting in his home at Nawadavillage,10kmfromjhabar,wherethe incident occurred.

Alamandhismotherrabinabibi,ahousewife, live with her father Mohammad Ibrahim. Majloom Ansari is her brother. Alam’s father Mohammad Suleman Ansari works as a labourer in Ahmedabad.

While younger sister Asmina is a Class 10 student at Balumath High School and younger brother Arshad is studying in a government school, Alam’s schooling has been in madrasas for the past eight years.

“I am doing Hafizi, which is equivalent to Class 12 in the normal course. Next, I will study for Alim and, later, can become a maulana,” he says, adding that the madrasa doesn’t charge anything.

He is confident of getting work at a mosque or the madrasa, and isn’t sure if he can get a government job. “Maybe I can. I haven’t really thought about it.”

The family has decided to give up cattletrading for good. “I know they have been doingthisforthepastseveralyears.butwenow liveinfear.iwouldnotwantanybodytotouch that profession again,” Alam says.

There is another reason for the fear. “No 5 people were arrested for lynching two cattle traders, including a 12-year-old boy, in Jharkhand’s Latehar district on March 19. Three others later surrendered. Chargesheet has been filed in the case, all accused are out on bail action is being taken against the guilty. Then how are we going to ensure that such an incident is not repeated?”

Alam says his family now fears crossing Jhabar, the village from where the accused hail.

Families of both victims also feel let down by the authorities, who approached them with promises. “The only thing I have is a hand-pump outside my house. They had promised a house, a job and we had demandedrs50lakhcompensation.thehandpump apart, nothing has come to us,” says Azad Khan, Imtiyaz’s father.

Majloom’s daughters have got admission at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, a government-run residential school for girls in Balumath,butthefamily,demandingahigher compensation,rejectedars1lakhofferfrom the government. PRASHANT PANDEY

Alam (selfie above)