A 35-year-old Muslim man, who tried to save his teenage son from getting beaten up by a group, was allegedly shot dead in Delhi’s Nandi Nagri on Tuesday, February 17.
Mohammed Umardeen was relishing a cup of tea with his wife, mother and three daughters, when a call from his 15-year-old son, Tehjeem, changed everything.
Tehjeem, who sounded tense, asked his father to rescue him after he was surrounded by an angry mob. According to his mother, the teenager was targeted for his religious identity. “Unn logon ne usse rokha aur kahan, ‘Yeh Musalmaan hai, isse maro.’ Mere bacche ko itna maara ki uska sir fhaad diya (They stopped him and said, ‘He is a Muslim, beat him.’ They assaulted my child so brutally that his head was split open),” she told local media.
A grievously injured Tehjeem called up his father. “Woh bola, ‘Papa, mujhe bachao. Mujhe bahut maar rahein hai, Sonu aur uska bhai Sardar (“He told me, ‘Papa, save me. They are beating me badly — Sonu and his brother Sardar),'” she said.
His mother recalls that as soon as her husband got the call, he ran to the place. Umardeen questioned the boys, who, by then, hid inside their home. “Andar se gandi gandi gaaliyaan bakne lage, dono bhai (“From inside, both brothers started hurling filthy abuses),” Umardeen’s wife said.
As the commotion went on, one of the brothers came out with a gun and fired fatal shots at Umardeen.
Umardeen’s wife rushed him to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
“Mere bacho se unka saaya cheen liya (They have taken away the shadow of their father from my children),” Umardeen’s wife said.
His mother, an elderly citizen, could not bear the loss of her son. “Jiska mara, uska dil dukhtha hai. Na police ka jaatha hai, na kisi janta ka. Chothe bache hai uske. Kya hoga unka? (The one who has lost someone is the one who feels the pain. Neither the police nor the public truly bears it. He has small children — what will happen to them?),” the mother said.
The following day, angry residents, including Hindus, blocked the GTB roundabout road demanding an immediate arrest of Sonu and Sadar. They refused to take Umardeen’s body for burial. After hours, police reached the spot and assured the aggrieved family that they had formed teams to nab the brothers, YouTube channel Hindustan Live reported.
Umardeen was finally laid to rest.
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