People in Ballabgarh’s Kandhawali village in Haryana on Monday wore black arm bands during Eid prayers to protest against the lynching of 17-year-old Junaid on a moving train by a group of people.
The Muslim community in Mewat and adjoining region also tied black bands on their arms during Eid prayers to express their anguish in the wake of the June 22 lynching incident.
Junaid was stabbed to death while his two brothers - Hasim (21) and and Sakir (23) were injured by a mob who also allegedly passed slurs against them after the dispute over the seat on board the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations on Thursday (June 22) night.
Situation in Junaid’s village - Kandhawali - remains tense as people demanded strict and immediate action against the culprits. Though prayers were offered in the morning, no Eid celebrations were held in Khandawali village, lying on the outskirts of the national capital, as the family and other locals remained in a state of shock over the brutal killing of Junaid.
Junaid’s father Jallaludin (55) while talking to the medipersons said that Eid would never be the same for the family. He also dismissed the police’s claim that Junaid was killed because of a dispute over the sharing of a seat.
“Junaid had, in fact, vacated a seat for an elderly person. The seat theory is being cooked up as an excuse. The incident is purely communal in nature and my son was targeted because of his religious identity,” alleged Jallaludin.
“We offered namaaz but we won’t celebrate the festival. We want those responsible for our son’s death to be punished,” said he when asked about the ‘black Eid’ in the village.
When asked if anyone from the Haryana Government had met the family yet, Jallaludin said, “Not even a lower rank official of the State Government has visited us, what to say about the Chief Minister.”
“We have not even heard anybody from the government condemning the incident,” he added.The villagers gathered around Jallaludin and other family members, consoling them in their hour of grief. They also sat in protest with the grieving family.
One of those arrested over Junaid’s killing, before being remanded to police custody by a court in Faridabad on Saturday, had told mediapersons that he was drunk at the time of the incident and attacked the teenager after being allegedly instigated by fellow passengers.
In a similar incident, a 55-year-old Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer from Mewat's Jaisinghpur village, was lynched by cow vigilantes in April in Behror area of Alwar district in Rajasthan.