Hyderabad: A 24-year-old man was left with serious head injuries after he was allegedly attacked by a group of men on Jalpally Road, under the Pahadishareef Police Station limits, on Wednesday evening, July 8.
The victim, Mohammed Mahboob, has said he was targeted because he is Muslim. The police have rejected this, saying the incident stemmed from a personal altercation and that Mahboob was intoxicated at the time.
‘He called us Turkalu and hit me with his helmet’
According to Mahboob, he and a friend, Mohammed Khalid, were riding home from Jalpally around 4:30 pm when a man he identified as Ajay stopped them.
In a video statement circulating online, Mahboob said Ajay told them not to “shout” while Khalid was on a phone call, then used a derogatory term for Muslims before assaulting him. “One person stopped us while we were heading home from Jalpally. He asked us not to shout and called us Turkalu, then hit me with his helmet,” Mahboob said.
Mahboob said he and Khalid explained that they had not been talking about him at all, but Ajay did not relent. Khalid managed to flee the scene, Mahboob said, but he himself was set upon by Ajay and four other men.
He said he sustained injuries to his head, mouth, teeth and eyes and briefly lost consciousness during the assault.
Police cite altercation, not communal motive
The Pahadishareef Police have disputed the account of a hate crime. Station House Officer (SHO) B Lakshmi Narayana Reddy said the case arose from a dispute between Mahboob and Ajay, during which Ajay allegedly struck Mahboob with a helmet. Three others – identified as Charan, Lucky Goud and one more person – allegedly joined the assault afterward.
“There is no communal angle in this case. Mahboob and Ajay had an altercation, and Ajay hit Mahboob with a helmet. Later, three other persons, including Charan and Lucky Goud, also attacked the victim,” the SHO told Siasat.com, adding that Mahboob was drunk at the time and that his allegations were false.
The police said Ajay suffered a broken nose in the scuffle and is also undergoing treatment. The two accounts diverge on how many people were involved in the assault. Mahboob’s version puts the number at five, the police’s at four.
A case has been registered under Section 118(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means. The police said investigation is ongoing.
Hospitalised twice as condition worsened
Mahboob was first taken to Osmania General Hospital, where he received six stitches to his head. After being discharged, his condition reportedly deteriorated, and he was later admitted to Recovery Hospital in Mallapur for further treatment.
Meanwhile, Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan visited Mahboob at the hospital and rejected the police’s version of events. He said Mahboob, a native of Bhalki in Karnataka now residing in Wadi-e-Mustafa, Shaheen Nagar, was attacked without provocation by a group of “communal elements” while travelling with Khalid.
Khan said Mahboob had sustained serious head injuries along with wounds to his mouth, teeth and eyes.
Khan said this was not an isolated case, alleging that attacks on Muslim youth had become frequent within the Balapur and Pahadishareef police station limits, and that effective preventive measures had not been taken. He demanded the immediate arrest of everyone involved.
He called on Hyderabad Commissioner VC Sajjanar to personally inspect vulnerable localities through night visits, step up police patrolling, identify anti-social elements involved in communal violence and ensure strict legal action against those responsible, warning that unchecked incidents could affect communal harmony and law and order in the city.
Khan appealed to the Telangana government and the Hyderabad Police to ensure the safety of all citizens “irrespective of their religion.”
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