Three of nearly 30 men arrested for the train incident. In another horrific incident on a train, 10 members of a Muslim family faced near death when a group of men mercilessly beat them up in Uttar Pradesh. In Yogi’s UP, it seems that if you look like a Muslim you run the risk of being beaten up by the Hindutva brigade or just people who seem emboldened by the unstated mood in the state ever since the Yogi took over.
The family with a handicapped teenager were returning from a wedding party in the Shikohabad-Kasganj passenger train when they were brutally assaulted by a gang of youngsters on Wednesday. The incident took place when the family was on its way back from attending a marriage ceremony. A group of 35-30 men assaulted the family with iron rods and sticks between Mota and Nibkarori railway stations- some 30 km away from Farrukhabad junction.
All the victims were later taken to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia government hospital, Farrukhabad.
“It was a horror which I cannot forget. They attacked us with iron roads, robbed our belonging and molested our women. They didn’t even spare my 17-year-old physically and mentally challenged son.
They verbally abused us with some in the attacking group saying, ‘Kill them, they are Muslims’,” 50-year-old Mohammad Shakir who got injured in the incident said.
The Government Railway Police on Thursday registered a case and arrested three men in Meerut. A video of the incident, which was widely circulated on social media, shows a mob of around 30 men armed with rods and sticks abusing the family and banging the coach from outside.
Shakir said they were targeted after the mob noticed the women in the family wearing veils. Some of the passengers who came to our rescue were attacked, too, the 53-year-old said.
Superintendent of Police (GRP) OP Singh said four of the family had suffered injuries to their head, while four others had suffered hand fractures. All of them had internal bleeding in the stomach. Singh added that a case of dacoity had been filed and that more charges will be added to the FIR after an investigation.
The assailants gained entry into the compartment by breaking the glass panel of the emergency window.
A police officer said that the women appeared to have been molested as their clothes were torn. “Right now, they are in no condition to spell out in detail what happened. But prima facie, it appears that some of the women were molested.”