India

Two men claim they attacked Umar Khalid, say ‘wanted to give people a gift on I-Day’

Two men, believed to be from Haryana, in a four minute long WhatsApp video, have claimed the attack on Umar Khalid. The two men identified themselves as Sarvesh Shahpur and Naveen Dalal, said that they would surrender at the house of Sikh revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha on August 17.

They maintained that they “wanted to give a gift to the people on the occasion of Independence Day.” An official from the Special Cell told Indian Express, “If their claim found to be corroborative, they will be arrested.”

The Delhi Police Special Cell launched a search operation to arrest the two men seen in the WhatsApp video in which one of them is seen holding the Indian Tricolor while these men have requested the police not to ‘harass’ others for the attack.

Earlier, on Monday, outside the Constitution Club of India, an assailant entered the premise in order to attack the JNU student Umar Khalid, where he had come to attend an event. The police is trying to match the photo of the two persons with the attacker seen in the CCTV footage recovered from the spot.

ALSO READ: They cannot browbeat us into silence: Umar Khalid on his attempted killing

The leader was at the Club to attend an event, “Khauff Se Azaadi”, organised by ‘United Against Hate’. “There is an atmosphere of fear in the country, and anybody who speaks against the government is threatened,” he said after the attack.

The Delhi Police has started to track the phone number which was used to send threats to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and JNU student Shehla Rashid after popular JNU student leader, Umar Khalid was shot at. He escaped, unhurt.

According to sources in the Delhi Police Special Cell, it is being probed whether the number is registered in a foreign country. “We will contact the service provider… to ascertain which country the messages came from,” said a police officer. Police sources said once they identify the country, they can access the details of the user.

The messages were sent to Rashid and Mewani in June and in August. The sender had claimed to be Indian gangster Ravi Pujary. The sender had told Mewani that he would harm Khalid.

Last year, Gauri Lankesh, a senior Kannada journalist known for her criticism of Hindu extremism, wasshot dead at her home. Lankesh, 55, was the daughter of famous poet-turned-journalist P Lankesh. She was the editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrike, writing often against Sangh organisations and communal violence in the country.

Recently, the SIT probing the case suspects that four top-level leaders of a pro-Hindutva outfit were the ones who conceived the plot to kill her and other rationalists, the news minute reported.

ALSO READ: Shut your mouth or we will shut it forever: Gangster threatens Shehla Rashid

According to the report, it has been revealed that the six accused in the case were the executors of the murder plot and investigators have launched a hunt for four more persons connected to the murder.

“There is a suspicion that a retired Army Colonel, who became a member of a pro-Hindutva outfit is one of the four men who hatched the plot,” the SIT source added.

In August 2015, scholar, rationalist and teacher M.M. Kalburgi was shot dead at his home in the north Karnataka town of Dharwad for his views against the Hindutva brigade.

 

Click to comment
To Top