A month on, Alwar victims stare at debt, livelihood crisis
UNENDING TRAUMA Cow protection vigilantes named in FIR still not arrested, questioned
The economics of life has not been impressive for Azmat since he was attacked along with Pehlu Khan and three others by cow protection vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar for allegedly smuggling the bovines for slaughter — a month ago.
The group, traditionally dairy farmers hailing from Jaisinghpur village in Haryana’s Nuh district, had bought cows from the cattle fair in Jaipur and were returning.
While Pehlu Khan’s family has received financial assistance from some organisations after his death, bed-ridden Azmat and Rafeeq are staring at a livelihood crisis and rising debts.
The former, who is recovering from a spinal injury sustained in the attack, had purchased three cows for ₹75,000. “The attackers also snatched ₹35,000 from me,” he says.
His brother Yusuf, who works in Mathura, says that they have spent nearly ₹1.5 lakh already on Azmat’s treatment. “I have to take him to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, every 3-4 days for treatment, and each trip costs about ₹5,000. All our savings have dried up and we are running into debts,” he says.
“There is no milk in the house. Whatever little we get, we dilute it and give it to Azmat’s little child (his one-year-old daughter),” says Azmat’s mother.
Although doctors say that Azmat’s spine injury will heal in two to three months, he has been told not to lift anything heavy or take up strenuous jobs for life. For Azmat, whose work involved much manual labour, the doctor’s words have spelt doom.
The other victim, Rafeeq too is bedridden and has a broken nose. The money that he was carrying with him was stolen by the attackers, he said.
Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria described the attackers as “cow worshippers” and the victims as “cow smugglers”. Irshad, 24, the eldest of Pehlu Khan’s eight children, is still not adept at dairy-farming, the occupation that engages most people in the village.
“You don’t know enough about cattle yet. I’ll come with you and identify the right one myself,” Khan had told Irshad on the morning of the fateful day.
“786 / 3-4-17 / Pehlu Khan / Khuda Hafiz / 786,” reads the unruly paint in Hindi on the bright yellow gravestone on Pehlu Khan’s grave in the barren ground in front of his house. “Kahaan se bachta Pehlu (How could he have survived)?” asks Hussain, Khan’s uncle as he walks back from the grave .
“If you saw the video, the man in blue shirt had a key in his fist and was pounding Pehlu’s head with that,” he says, referring to a video of the incident that emerged later.
Pehlu and others had ravannas (purchase receipts) from the cattle market, but not the permits needed to transport the cows out of the state. The officer authorised to issue the permits had earlier expressed ignorance about any such authority. “I don’t issue the permits, nor have I ever issued any,” Baldev Ram Bhojak, SDO Amer, had told HT.
Police have not yet arrested any of the six mentioned in the FIR. They have not recorded the statements of other victims.
Nobody in Jaisinghpur talks about avenging the attack. With fear deepening, villagers are unsure about the prospects of dairy farming, something that they have done for ages.
HOME MINISTER GULAB CHAND KATARIA CALLED THE ATTACKERS AS ’COW WORSHIPPERS’ AND
THE VICTIMS AS
‘COW SMUGGLERS’