What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
UDAIPUR: After the horrific killing of a Hindu tailor by two Muslim men on Tuesday, June 28, there is an expected shock and despair that marred the community in Udaipur.
While the city took steps towards returning to normalcy, with the administration giving four-hour relaxation to people, a sense of fear and anger gripped the Khanjipeer area where the main accused of the horrific murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli resided.
Out of fear the locals in the area, which still has a heavy deployment of the police force, were not ready to speak in open when The New Indian visited the neighbourhood.
The narrow bylanes of the area took The New Indian to the two-storey residence of Ghous Mohammed. ‘Ashrafi’, the residence of one of the killers, has a general store shop on the ground floor while the living quarters are on the first floor. The shop, expectedly, was closed after the arrest of Ghous.
ALSO READ: Udaipur Ground Zero – Stab Rafique, Jabbar Like My Husb Was: Kanhaiya’s Yashoda
Few who were ready to talk to The New Indian, after much cajoling, said that Ghous’ father Rafiq Mohammed shifted into the locality some 30-35 years ago.
They said that Rafiq came to know about the news between 3 to 4 pm after a few children told him. “Rafiq was drinking tea when the news of his son’s involvement came to light. He sank in tension. The news broke him completely, we can see it,” Akbar Khan, Rafique’s neighbour, told The New Indian. “He held his head in tension and sat silently,” Khan, who also runs a general store, added.
Akbar said that Ghous was a seven-time namazi and the locality is in a state of shock that how he got associated with fellow accused Riyaaz Attari. “We never saw Attari coming to Ghous’ house in the last few months,” Khan said.
Mohammeds’ Hindu neighbour Jaya said that she is in a state of disbelief. “They never had any arguments with anyone. We could not believe that Rafiq Mohammad’s son was taken for such a horrific crime,” Jaya said.
Neighbours insisted that Ghous and his family are like brothers and sisters to them. The whole community lived like one big family sans any animosity. The neighbours admitted that the incident shook them to the core as they feel the entire locality is now vulnerable.
ALSO READ: Who’ll Give My Husband A Job, Please Convey To CM: Wife Of Udaipur Terror
Showing sympathy for Ghous, another neighbour Ruksana Khan said, “All the claims that he used to take donations of Rs 25-30 for terror activities are wrong because he worked as a financial agent. He lost his job after Sahara India shut shop,” she said.
Ruksana also said that the government should not paint the entire Muslim community as terrorists for the involvement of one single man. “We all are born here and will die here as Indians. We are the citizens of our country,” she said.
She also said that Ghous had gone for Haj and Umrah with his mother, wife and his child. “He didn’t go for any terror training but to pay obeisance to Allah,” she added.
Kanhaiya Lal Teli, a tailor by profession, was brutally killed in broad daylight on Tuesday at his shop in Udaipur by Riyaz Attari and Ghous Mohammed. They not only beheaded Teli but also filmed the entire murderous act and threatened Prime Minister Modi.
ALSO READ: Two Men Behead Udaipur Tailor In Nupur Case; Arrested After Brag Video
They were arrested from the Rajsamand area of the state a few hours after the incident.
According to Rajasthan Police sources, which interrogated the duo, it was revealed that they were self-radicalised and they followed Pakistan’s Karachi-based Dawat-e-Islami leader Illyas Attar Qadri. The followers of Illyas Attar Qadri call themselves Attari.
The mobile phones of the two accused have been sent for forensic examination and their report is expected in the next few days.
