By Syed Zubair Ahmad,
ANew Delhi: The families of Mustaqim (22) and Naushad (17) – two youths who were picked up by police on Sep 16th and later killed on Sep 20th in an alleged fake encounter – are living under complete house arrest, journalists and activists are not allowed to meet them , they are being intimidated and heckled by Bajrang Dal goons.
A local journalist Hasan Khalid told Muslim Mirror that the Police in plainclothes are remained present at their one-room rented accommodation during whole day and put lock on the door at night before leaving the home. It seems that Police do not want the relatives of the victims meet people coming from outside in order to hide their “misdeed”. Because of Police’s continuous tailing, the families are facing hunger. Survivors said we lost our sole bread-earners (Mustaqim and Naushad), and there is no one in the family to take care of us while the police personnel have been continuously harassing and not allowing even our neighbors to accept their material help. Mustaqim’s mother said police personnel in mufti grill and interrogate after any outsider comes to meet us or video record the meeting.
We are in a total mess, disarray and terrorize, even we cannot go to the hospital in Aligarh as the doctor has fixed the date for operation of my one daughter, she said.
Beside this, police are also harassing and threatening activists and media persons who are coming to visit the victim families. Policemen ask for their identity cards while in the meantime their some colleagues inform the Bajrang Dal goons about the activists visit, Hasan said.
In a jiffy goons stormed the place and start heckling and attacking them, he added.
Last week United Against Hate (UAH ) team were heckled and intimidated by Bajrang Dal goons at Atrauli village’s police station when they tried to meet victim families.
“Within five minutes such an environment created that if we had stayed there for a few minutes more, we would have been lynched.” remembers Nadim Khan of UAH while recounting the visit.
When activist Maria Alam from Aligarh went to meet them, she was also heckled and threatened in the presence of the Atrauli station house officer (SHO) Pravesh Rana whose dismissal is being demanded by rights groups for his involvement in the “encounter”.
What is more, another youth Nafees has been still in the police custody who was also picked up by the police along with Mustaqim and Naushad on September 16 while his family fears for his life.
It should be noted that Furquan , father of Mustaqeem has been reportedly missing since the day they all were picked up on September 16. He has not come back home ever since and there is no information about his whereabouts.