No justice in sight

By Anju Azad, TwoCircles.net,

It was an unusual day for Mr. Siraj Khan and Manowara Begum, when I knocked their door. The parents of Sameer Khan found my visit unusual as the public conscience had stopped knocking the door of their house in Birubari in Guwahati, Assam, long time back. But I went there in the last week of May as I wanted to know more about their son – Sameer Khan who was killed nine years ago.

Sameer Khan was a young college-going boy of 23. He was bright, shy, religious and homely in nature. His mother says he used to look after all the odd jobs in the house. He would help his mother and his ailing father apart from helping his three sisters. He was the only son and hence parents’ expectations about his bright career were quite high.
November 1, 2001 was an important day for all the Muslims in the region. It was Shab-e-Barat, a holy day in the Islamic calendar. In Assam, Muslims celebrate this particular day with great devotion and enthusiasm. Sameer Khan, being a religious person, was busy all day in fasting and offering namaz. He asked his mother to prepare his favorite halwa for iftaar. He was so happy that he announced that he would appear and present the recipe on the TV next day so that all mothers could prepare the halwa for their children. Of course, he did appear on TV the next day but for a very unfortunate reason.

Siraj Khan remembers the day with a heavy heart. Nine long years have passed, still he has not forgotten even a bit of what happened on November 1, 2001. The father and son had been to a nearby masjid for namaz at around 8 pm. After namaz, Sameer, along with 11 friends from the locality, decided to go for a tour to some of the prominent masjids in Guwahati to offer namaz.

The group started at around 9-30 pm. They were on bikes and scooters. After visiting Athgaon, Ulubari and Hatigaon masjids at around 12-30 am, they were on their way to Burah masjid, one of the oldest and most prominent masjids in Guwahati. They were only about one km away the Masjid when some CRPF personnel asked the group to stop their vehicles at Zoo Tiniali. Security persons asked them to halt there. Sameer stopped his scooter. A young kid named Fazal, 10 years old, was sharing the pillion seat. CRPF officer Venkateshwaram, who was heavily drunk, reached Sameer and put his gun pointing at his belly. Sameer was frightened and requested the officer to remove it. He didn’t, instead, he shouted, ‘You are all Talibans’ and pumped bullets into his abdomen. Sameer fell down from the scooter and cried, ‘Uncle, you really shot me?’ Sameer’s friends who were waiting for him around the shooting site were too frightened to utter a word.

Then, a vigilant mobile vehicle of the Assam Police reached the spot and arranged for the hospitalization of bleeding Sameer. Sameer was taken to the hospital 2 hours after the shooting and his life couldn’t be saved.
The incident triggered huge public outcry and became the headline for the local news papers the next day. The Assamese daily ‘Pratidin’ wrote, ‘Sameer Khan became the cruel sacrifice while going for namaz on Shab-e-barat’. This cold blooded murder evoked strong condemnation from all sections of the society. The state constituted an enquiry commission under the Commissions of Enquiry Act, 1952. The commission was ordered to submit report within 15 days. After 9 years, Sameer’s parents are yet know the findings of the commission.

Siraj Khan said, "I lost my son. He will never come back. He was killed for no crime. And we did not get justice simply because of religious discrimination". Siraj recalls that when the incident took place, his house was crowded with top leaders with high promises of justice and compensation and now there is hardly anyone to see how the family is surviving. "For me, there is no justice in sight", laments Siraj.

Samir left behind two sisters who run a grocery shop to support the family.

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