Five years later, fresh Ghatmika killings open old wounds of a family

Five years after Khurshidan’s husband Umar Mohammad’s murder, Ghatmika is once again filled with sorrow and abuzz with people after the charred bodies of villagers Junaid and Nasir, were found in Haryana, with their families accusing Bajrang Dal members for their deaths.

For Umar’s family, the two deaths have once again opened old wounds.

In November 2017, Umar’s body was found on the railway tracks. He was allegedly killed by cow vigilantes while ferrying cows.

“What is the sin of this young boy?” asks Khurshidan, pointing towards her youngest son saying he often asks about his father.

The boy doesn’t go to school.

“Kaise padhaun? Inke pet bharun ya padhaun? (How do I send them to school? What should I do? Should I arrange for food or send the children to study). I worked as a labourer to fend for my family after my husband died,” says Khurshidan, the mother of Umar’s eight children.

At one corner of the room, Umar’s ailing father Sahabuddin stays bedridden, while his mother Chandari cries silently, remembering her son.

“When I first got to know about the deaths of Junaid and Nasir, I once again felt the pain that the news of my father’s death had brought. I haven’t been able to think anything except the three deaths since then,” Umar’s eldest son Maqsood (21) told The Indian Express on Friday.

He says that Junaid and Nasir were distant relatives of the family.

Maqsood, who was a minor when his father died, says that soon after his father’s death, he had to discontinue his studies.

“I have studied till class 8 but I had to leave studies after my father’s death. I am learning driving, hoping that it will help me to earn better. I have to run our family of 15-20 people. If those who had killed my father were punished, this killing of Junaid and Nasir would not have happened,” says Maqsood.

“Aise toh har logon ko maar dalenge. Hum bhi kahin pe jaate hain, humko bhi maar dalenge kahin pe (In this way, they (cow vigilantes) will kill everyone. If we go somewhere, they will kill us too. Unless they are not punished, they won’t learn a lesson. People in the village are living in fear,” says Maqsood.

In the attack on Umar in 2017, one of his companions, Tahir was injured after being shot.

Later, the Rajasthan police had filed cases of cow smuggling against Tahir and another companion, Javed. Incidentally, Javed, who was in Ghatmika on Friday, said that Junaid, one of the men killed in the latest case, was his relative.

“We were attacked in 2017 and Umar lost his life. Now, my uncle has been killed. Three families have been finished. Where is justice here?” says Javed.

Javed says that he is presently on bail in the cow smuggling case filed against him and is also a witness in the Umar murder case.

Maqsood says that the family is also struggling to pay for the lawyer’s fees.

“The case of Umar’s murder is presently in trial stage at the ADJ court in Laxmangarh, Alwar. The police had filed chargesheets against those accused of killing Umar. Presently all the accused are on bail,” said Mehboob Khan, advocate for Umar’s family.