Kashmiri Boy Dies After Being Attacked, Abused By Mob in Rajasthan
“Jaipur se hum ek ek Kashmiri ko nikal denge,” (We will take every Kashmiri out of Jaipur) Sufyan Rafiq, the only eyewitness to Basit Khan’s beating told The Quint on Friday, 7 February, a day after Khan succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Jaipur.
A 17-year-old Kashmiri boy, Basit Khan, who was doing a part-time job in Jaipur to support his family was thrashed by a mob on the night of 5 February. Khan succumbed to his injuries at 8:30 pm on the night of 6 February and, by the afternoon of 7 February, his body was sent via a private ambulance to Kashmir.
Basit belonged to a poor family from Kupwara in Kashmir. His father died in 2012. He was the oldest in the house, with three younger sisters and a brother. “The family has had to pay Rs 30,000 to get the body to Kashmir. They are very poor and he had come here to work to help the family financially. He was in class 11 and was doing part-time work at an events company to make some money.”
Abused, Told ‘Kashmiris Will Be Thrown Out of Jaipur’
Basit and Rafiq, both from Kashmir, went to work at an event on the evening of 5 February. When they returned, they got into a fight with a few other boys on the organising team. “Basit wanted to sit in front as he was tired. This enraged a boy from Mumbai and he held on to Basit’s collar. They started beating him up. One of the boys, Aditya, was repeatedly hitting Basit on the head,” Rafiq, an eyewitness to the beating, told The Quint.
While beating up Basit, the boys, which included Hindus and Muslims, kept saying we will throw out each and every Kashmiri from Jaipur. “They also used unspeakable abuses against us and kept referring to us as Kashmiris again and again.”
Rafiq said they held him down so he could not help Basit. “After beating him the driver dropped us a few kms away from our home. In the cab, the boys kept complaining about the increasing number of Kashmiri’s at work. After getting dropped, he and I walked and walked. He kept falling. As soon as we reached home he began to cry. Then he started vomiting. In the cab on the way to the hospital, he fell unconscious.”
Rafiq said the doctors operated on him but said his chances of survival were meagre. He died at 8:30 pm on 6 February.
Eyewitness Being ‘Threatened’
Rafiq went to the police station to register an FIR, a copy of which is with The Quint.
His statement has been recorded by the Rajasthan Police and the accused have been booked under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC on 6 February.
After Basit’s death on 7 February, the police incorporated the section 303 of the IPC (murder) into the FIR.
“These boys who were present there dissuaded me from filing the FIR. When I said I was definitely going to, another boy straight up threatened me. He said, “Tum mein se ek coma mein hai, tera number bhi aajayega (One of you is already in coma, you will be next).”
Rajasthan Police has arrested one person in the case as of now. “His name is Aditya and as per the complaint, he is the one who hit Basit on his head repeatedly,” a police official said. He added the investigation in the case is underway and the accused will be arrested.
