Jammu: Reacting to a Tweet by former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti, the Inspector General of Police Jammu on Monday said that police has registered a case against a mob for physically assaulting a Muslim family and a statement has been recorded from one of the family members who sustained injuries in the attack.
In Samba district of Jammu, a Muslim man and his family was physically assaulted by a group of Hindu men after he resisted a molestation attempt on his young daughter.
The incident happened on Saturday evening when Rafaqat Ali, his son Dilawar, his wife and his daughter were walking behind a herd of sheep and goats and a car came in their way. Three men alighted from it. They walked towards Rafaqat’s daughter, grabbed her and tried to drag her into the car, Clarion India reported.
Dilawar and Rafaqat were quick in resistance. They stepped ahead and pushed the men and freed her from their clutches. She ran away towards her mother.
But the three men retaliated; “They beat us with sticks,” the report quoted Dilawar as saying, “My sister and mother were also injured in the attack.”
Quoting a police official, the report said that case has been registered under section 307 (Attempt to murder) and 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
The family — Bakarwal, a pastoral Muslim community, that herds cattle and make seasonal journeys, presently lives in Sonwali Mandi village of the district but they originally come from the Larnoo Kokernag village of Anantnag in south Kashmir.
The report quoting Dilawar alleged that the three men called more people to attack them. “First they were three men but then they made a phone call and we saw 50-60 Hindus gathered around us.” Dilawar while recounting the horrific ordeal said he bled from nose and mouth and his father was “beaten so much that he fell unconscious”.
His sister acted smartly, the report said; she sneaked away to safety and made a call to her uncle who rushed to the police station.
A police team came to their rescue. They removed an unconscious Ali to a hospital in Samba town where he was rushed to government medical college in Jammu city.
He was admitted to the hospital for two days before he was discharged on Monday morning. “I have been advised to show up for a check-up after two days,” the report quoted Ali saying who is putting up with his relatives in Jammu.
As per the report, the attackers again threatened them of burning their huts if “we raise voice against them” Dilawar claimed that some of their livestock is missing as the family got busy attending Rafaqat at the hospital.
The community activists see the attack as part of a general atmosphere of hate prevailing against tribal Muslims in Hindu dominated areas of the Jammu region.
The Clarion India report quoting Dilawar said that the family does not know the names of the attackers but added can identify them. “They are locals of the village from the Hindu community,” he said.
Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti termed the incident a “brutal attack”. She urged the police to “look into the matter immediately”.
A Gujjar family was brutally attacked in Samba yesterday. The culprits tried to abduct their daughter, the family resisted & were beaten up. The father has been admitted to GMC.The goons later set their sheds ablaze.Request @mukesh_ips_jk ji to look into this immediately pic.twitter.com/HrSPJcPD65
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) March 21, 2021
Reacting to her Tweet, Inspector General of Police Jammu said that police have taken cognizance of the incident.
Cognizance taken. FIR no. 90/2021 u/s 307/341/323/354 IPC lodged at p/s Samba. Injured shifted to hospital. No sheds were burnt. DSP Hqr reached GMC to record the statement of injured.
— Mukesh Singh (@mukesh_ips_jk) March 21, 2021
“Cognizance taken. FIR no. 90/2021 u/s 307/341/323/354 IPC lodged at p/s Samba. Injured shifted to hospital. No sheds were burnt. DSP Hqr reached GMC to record the statement of injured,” he Tweeted.
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