Hyderabad: Before boarding a train at Nampally railway station last week, Saifuddin had promised to return with goodies for his daughters. The girls — aged 6, 2, and a 6-month-old infant — must have eagerly waited for his return until their mother rushed them to make an ominous journey to their native place Bidar, knowing that Saifuddin will never return.
“Nobody has the courage to tell the girls what happened to their father,” says Yunus, 24, younger brother of Saifuddin, who was among the four people shot dead by an RPF constable on a moving train. The accused Chetan Singh first shot at his senior ASI Tikaram Meena and went on to kill three more people on the Jaipur-Mumbai train on July 31.
The incident took place reportedly after an argument over a communal issue. The disturbing visuals of the incident, which later surfaced on the internet, shook the entire country.
Back in Hyderabad, congested narrow lanes of Battery Line road lead to a decrepit 3-storey building, where Saifuddin stayed with wife, brother and three daughters. He had moved to Hyderabad from Bidar, along with his family, in search of a better future 12 years ago.
Saifuddin worked as a mobile technician at a small shop in Gujarati Galli. He made frequent trips to Mumbai to make purchases related to his business. “This time, he had said he would be gone for a week. When it was his time to return, I received a call instead. I was told that my brother had been killed,” Yunus tells Siasat.com. He last saw his brother when he dropped him off at the Nampally railway station on Tuesday, July 25.
According to the family’s statements and media reports, Saifuddin was shot after an altercation with the accused over religion.
Yunus lurked in a corner even as people swarmed his house to express condolences over the death. When a media person asked him if he had watched the video of the incident that was widely shared on social media, he looked down, shook his head and kept mum.
In one of the several disturbing videos of the incident, that surfaced online, the accused, wielding an automatic service rifle, was heard saying: “Agar vote dena hai, Hindustan mei rehna hai, to Modi aur Yogi… Yahi do hai…(If you want to stay in Hindustan, vote for Yogi (UP chief minister) & Modi (Prime Minister).”
Outside the house, Saifuddin’s uncle Wajid Pasha is somewhat able to voice his feelings. He strongly condemns the incident. “This is a story of injustice and savagery. Trust me, this is immense trauma. But at the same time, I am proud of my nephew. He is a martyr as he represented Muslims and Islam. His death will definitely not go in vain.”
He adds, “It is sad that those who have been tasked to protect us, they ask us our names, look at our faces and beards, and shoot us with their weapons. What kind of humanity is this? Is this our India? We are known for our Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb. But the Central government does not have a hold on these terrorists.”
I request the Center to take cognizance of the matter and ensure that justice is delivered, Pasha says, adding, “It will not work if the matter is moved to High Court then to Supreme Court, and eventually the accused is granted bail.”
Pasha also urged the government to provide aid for the immediate kin of the victim.
“I demand the both Centre and state governments sponsor the education of Saifuddin’s children, provide housing, and ex-gratia to meet their day-to-day needs,” he says.
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