E-Paper
Police action blamed for deaths
All that 14-year-old Luckmaan, a resident of Pachli village in Meerut, wanted was to meet his grandfather who lives in Dehra, Ghaziabad. But the teenager, who started his journey on Friday afternoon, never made it to his destination.
All that 14-year-old Luckmaan, a resident of Pachli village in Meerut, wanted was to meet his grandfather who lives in Dehra, Ghaziabad. But the teenager, who started his journey on Friday afternoon, never made it to his destination.
His family found his body at the Ghaziabad police's post-mortem facility. "All he wanted was to buy an auto-rickshaw to support his ailing father five siblings," said Luckman's grandfather Yunis. He blamed the police for his death. Families of the other five killed in the violence that erupted on Friday night also accused the police of negligence.
Asif, 18, was watching the violence spiral out of control at Masuri police station from his terrace. Soon, a bullet pierced through his thigh. His family tried to stop the heavy bleeding but failed. All roads, including NH-24, had been jammed by thousands of people who had come to protest at the police station. His family, despite their best efforts, could not take him to hospital.
"After nearly an hour, my brother succumbed to his gunshot wound. It is due to police firing that I have lost my brother," said Asif's brother Mohammad Imran. Another mysterious death was that of Waseem, 18, who had gone to a local gym on his moped before the clash started.
"The roads were jammed so he parked the moped at the gym and started towards the house on foot but went missing. We couldn’t trace him. On Saturday morning, a cop called from his mobile phone informing us about his death,” said Vakil, Waseem's elder brother.
