Free schooling for two kids of ‘cow smuggler’ killed in Rajasthan
The two children went to Delhi on December 10 and visited Kerala on December 12 to see the school where they will study.
Two children of a 35-year-old Muslim man, who was shot dead in Rajasthan last month, will be admitted to a school in Kozhikode after a Kerala-based political party offered to sponsor their studies.
Umar Mohammad was killed while transporting cattle with two other companions, Tahir Khan and Javed Khan, on November 10 and his mutilated body was found by the railway tracks in Alwar. A badly damaged pick-up truck was recovered nearby.The incident agitated many local Muslim groups, who organised protests.
Police have arrested Tahir and Javed on charges of cow smuggling and say Umar was killed by “anti-social elements”.
Two other men have also been held on the charges of killing and looting Umar.
Police suspect Umar and his companions were cow smugglers.
There is one case of cattle smuggling against Umar and three against Tahir, Alwar police have said in a press note.
A team of the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League visited Ghatmika, Umar’s village in Bharatpur, on November 14 and later the party’s MP ET Muhammed Basheer gave a cheque of Rs 2 lakh to the family. The IUML told Hindustan Times that they proposed to take care of the education of all nine of Umar’s children but that his wife, Khursheeda, allowed only two – eldest son Maqsood, 15 and Mehna, 7.
Umar’s brother Iliyas said the two are excited to be going to school. “They don’t go to school here,” the 61-year-old added.
Maksood and Mehna went to Delhi on December 10 and visited Kerala on December 12 to see the school where they will study. They returned to Ghatmika on Thursday evening. The two refused to speak to HT.
The IUML’s general secretary, CK Subair, said Mehna will be admitted to Class 3 and Maqsood to Class 8.
“We want to empower families of victims of lynch mob with education,” he added but refused to share the names of the institutions for “security reasons”. When asked how the two children, who have received no formal education till now, would cope with studies, Subair said the institutions were residential and had provisions for extra coaching.
Umar’s death was the latest in a series of killings connected to cow vigilantism in the state. In April, 55-year-old Haryana dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was lynched on the Jaipur-Delhi highway in Alwar, triggering nationwide protests.
Subair said the IUML had also sponsored the education of Faizal, the brother of Junaid Khan, a 16-year-old boy who was killed on board a Mathura-bound suburban train in June. Police said Junaid’s attackers mocked him and his brothers, tugged at their beards and accused them of being beef eaters. Faizal is in a residential school in Calicut and his cousin, XX, in an industrial training institute (ITI) in the city.
