Muslim boy lynched in Haryana: Why do they hate us so much, asks his mother

A teenager was killed and three of his friends injured in an attack by a group of persons in a train in Haryana, the Government Railway Police said on Friday. The deceased was identified as Junaid, 16, of Khandabali village in Haryana's Ballabhgarh. His friends too are said to hail from the same village. The GRP said the crime occurred on Thursday night when Junaid, Hasib, Shakir, and Mohsin were returning to their village on a Mathura-bound passenger train after shopping at Sadar Bazaar in Delhi.

According to media reports, the murderous attack followed rumours about beef eating by the victims.

The attackers repeatedly called us "anti-nationals" and "beef eaters", threw our skull caps on the floor. They caught our beards and taunted us with terms such as "mulla", the four injured to Hindustan Times.

This is what Junaid's family told Hindustan Times:

How could those men be so cruel to have pierced my son’s body like that,” Jallaluddin, Junaid’s father, said.

"He was a child. He was just 16. How could they hate us so much to have killed him so brutally? When I reached the spot, my son Hashim was sitting on the station with Junaid’s body soaked in blood in his lap,” he added.

Jallaluddin had reached Ballabgarh station to pick up his sons so that they could go to open the fast together, but when he reached the train had already left.

Saira, Junaid’s mother, was oblivious to the news of her son’s death. Till Friday morning she was not informed about it.

Saira said she will never be able to celebrate the festival of Eid. “This time it was special. My sons became the Hafiz. The preservers. And a day later I lost him. How can this be justified. How am I to cope up with this loss?”

However, there is a vast difference in the police's version of events.

In his police complaint, Hasib said at least 15-20 persons boarded the train at Okhla railway station and asked them to vacate seats for them.

He said the group abused them and uttered communally coloured comments when they refused.

"We were thrashed all the way from Tughlakabad to the Ballabhgarh Railway station," the 20-year old complainant said.

Hasib said a mob attacked them with sharp-edged weapons and threw them out of the train at Asaoti railway station in Palwal district of Haryana. He said the attackers too deboarded and fled while no one from among the onlookers came to their rescue.

The GRP said Junaid succumbed to his injuries at a Palwal hospital. His three friends received serious injuries.

Condemning the attack, Northern Railway spokesperson Neeraj Sharma told IANS: "It is condemnable. The Government Railway Police is looking into the matter."