Will we get justice for our son? Parents, siblings mourn teen killed by cow vigilantes

New Delhi April 20 (IANS) In the evenings as other children play with their siblings in Arahara village of Jharkhand Niyajul 8 and Safina 10 often say: "If only our brother was here..." It s something their parents find hard to respond to. Their 12-year-old son the brother missed by his siblings was killed by suspected cow vigilantes two years ago.

"They would say If brother was here he would have played with us " Mohammad Azad 45 said with his teary-eyed wife Najma Beebi 35 by his side.

The couple lost their son Imtiyaz Khan on March 18 2016 when he was beaten up along with his father s business partner Majlum Ansari 32 by alleged "Gau Rakshaks" as they were transporting eight oxen on foot in Latehar in Jharkhand. Their bodies were found hung from a tree.

With a black shawl over her head Najma Beebi told IANS that though her two younger children know about their brother s death they still ask about him when they see other children playing in the evenings.

But answering the children is least of the family s worries.

Two years on all the accused in the case are out on bail. And family members of the victims allege that that they were being threatened by them.

"After I testified in the court Bunty (one of the accused) said in the bazaar: Now see what we will do " Azad said.

When asked whether he was afraid Azad replied: "When your son is dead what is there to be scared of?"

Also earlier this month a report on the murders by a rights activist has alleged that police "sabotaged" the investigation by delaying filing of FIR in the case by 17 hours and then not including relevant sections of the IPC. Also a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named by eye-witnesses as one of the accused is yet to be questioned among others.

Ansari s widow Saira Beebi 35 remembered how about 15 days before he was murdered two of the accused came to their house with others and threatened her husband.

"They asked him to stop doing cattle business " Beebi said. "He told me that after selling the oxen that was already bought he would not get any."

Beebi now carries bricks on her head at a kiln in the village to make ends meet.

"There is no one to help us I m my father s only child and he is too old to even look after himself " she said.

Saira Beebi makes Rs 120 a day which she says is not enough for anything. "For everything we face problems: Food clothes everything."

"Sometimes I don t have energy to go to work but I have to go. It s very hard work " she said.

Azad said that he along with two of his friends Mohammad Nizamuddin 50 and Mohammad Manowwar 27 saw two of the accused hanging his son to death.

"Hiding behind the bushes we saw it. But we did not have the courage to stop them " Nizamuddhin told IANS.

Nizamuddin also said that he was threatened by the accused Bunty.

"I met Bunty one day on the road and he came to me and said If you go for the case we will kill you like we killed him " he said.

"We told everything in the court but nothing has happened " he said helplessly.

Azad said he wanted nothing but justice for his son: "What happened to my son should happen to them."

(Nikhil M. Babu can be contacted at nikhil.b@ians.in)

--IANS
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