A Muslim family was brutally assaulted and robbed by a gang while they were returning from a wedding ceremony on Shikohabad-Kasganj train travelling through UP’s Mainpuri district on Wednesday, said a Times of India report.
Ten members, including children and a mentally challenged teen, were admitted to a government hospital in Farrukhabad for serious injuries after being attacked iron rods and sticks.
Mohammad Shakir, 50, told TOI that around 30-35 men kept banging on their coach and pelted stones to break the windows. They then entered the train after breaking the emergency window’s glass panel.
He said they were verbally abused by the attackers who said, “Kill them, they are Muslims”.
Shakir’s son Arsaan said:
The assailants groped my mother and tore my sister’s blouse and salwar. They snatched their gold chains and took our luggage and jewellery. They even attacked other passengers who came to rescue us. Later the passengers abandoned the coach leaving us behind to fight the assailants.
He said that when the family boarded the train, some five youths too got on and later snatched a smartphone from his handicapped brother’s hand. When Arsaan confronted them, he was thrashed along with his mother and sister who rushed to rescue him.
They pulled the emergency brakes and as soon the train stopped, the assailants jumped out of the train and called 20-25 youths who were already waiting on bikes. We immediately locked the doors of the coach from inside and shut down the windows but the assailants started stone pelting and broke the emergency window.
He said that he dialed 100, but the call was dropped.
The Hindu report said that three people have been arrested and a case under Section 395 of the IPC had been registered. More sections will be added.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)