Thick air of shock, grief and dismay greets the visitors at the Hyderabad home of Mohammad Azam, the software engineer who was lynched in Bidar district in neighboring Karnataka on Friday.
Azam’s tiny one and a half years old son, unaware of the cruel turn the fate has taken, mumbles in the lap of his grandfather Mohammed Osman as the other family members try to hide their grief by gazing elsewhere as the people make a beeline to the small house in the congested bylane of Barkas, the Arab dominated locality of Hyderabad.
22-year-old Azmath, an employee of Accenture in the Hitech City, was part of a group of five youth, including a Qatar national which had come under attack of angry mob in Bidar which suspected them to be child lifters. The mob was apparently fueled by fake news and rumors on the Whatsapp and their misgiving were heightened by the fact that the Qatari national in the group had distributed chocolates to some of the kids on the road during his travel through the area.
“It was clearly a case of pre-meditated killing”, said Mohammed Osman, an employees of Indian Railways. “My son had pleaded with the mob and begged for his life. He tried to explain that they were visitors and no child lifters. But they sill killed him”.
Mohammed Osman and other family members wanted the Government of Karnataka and the police to ensure justice and stringent punishment to the killers.
“Nothing can bring back my son now. My family is destroyed. Our dreams are shattered. I don’t know with this little boy and a young widow what will be the future. But one thing I want is severe punishment to those who caused this grave tragedy”, said Osman.
“What is happening to our society. Have people lost their mindIJ We heard about so many lynching cases in other places and now this has happened to us. People are behaving worse than animals”, said Osman trying hard to control his tears.Osman had spent his entire income on getting his three sons and a daughter well educated. Azam’s twin brother Akram and Aslam are also software engineers and both were employed in Accenture and Amazon. Their sister Fouzia is a graduate.
As it was a weekend holiday for Azmath he along with three other friends had left home on Friday promising to return in few hours.