Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The family has been torn apart. Their father,Shamshad,killed before their eyes. Their mother,fighting for her life,has been referred to a hospital in Meerut. And now,the two boys aged three and six,themselves injured and barely able to comprehend what transpired,and their two young cousins have been taken back to where it all went wrong.
The village they were trying to escape all along.
The six-year-old boy had told The Indian Express on Sunday that the family was trying to leave the violence-struck village but was attacked. We were attacked on the way to Dharampur when a gang of men came. They hit my father on the head with iron rods. My mother tried to drag us all away,but they chased us and hit us also. We were rescued when a police jeep passed that way, the boy had said.
They had found refuge in the Muzaffarnagar district hospital for three days until Monday when their extended family found them.
Since their mother suffered severe head injuries,we had to refer her to a hospital in Meerut. Other family members arrived on Monday,and the children recognised them. They were taken back to the village in the evening, said a senior hospital official.
Shahnawaz,the uncle of the boys,said that he found out through the news media that his nephews were at the civil hospital.
Someone told us that his photographs were in the papers and the news. We were all trying to escape the village together but got separated. Since their mother has been taken to Meerut,Ill take them back to Kutba and keep them safe. The situation is better now,and there is nowhere else to go, he said.
