A twenty-two-year-old man was stabbed and beaten to death by a gang of three to four people on Tuesday evening in Kathua, which the police said was not a hate crime. But the fatal stabbing of Liakat Ali, some seventy kilometres from Rassana, made infamous by the gang rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl, comes at a time of enhanced sense of persecution in a section of people in Jammu that has watched with trepidation the rise of a campaign of hatred in the area.
At around 6 pm, Liakat and his relative, Abid Hussain, were at a shop of another relative in the Dher village of Kathua when they saw Abhishek Sharma, a classmate of Liakat. Abid had lent five hundred rupees to Abhishek some time back and now he was asking him to return the money. The demand enraged him, according to Abid, and he began abusing the duo.
“Upon noticing the heated argument between us and him, our relatives and passers-by came and pacified the situation and accordingly the accused sat on his bike. After he started his bike, he said he would teach us a lesson,” said Abid later to the media.
The elders of the community then called the police and told them about the whole episode and how Abhishek had threatened the two youngsters. “Two policemen came to the spot and asked us to show where the boy had gone. We couldn’t find him as he had left the spot. Later the policemen left and asked us to let them know everything,” said Abid.
As soon as the police left, Abhishek came back but this time he had some help with him. He had brought some friends along and his intentions were clear. He wanted to inflict harm on the duo who had the temerity to demand the money they had lent him. When they got down from the car with knives and sticks in their hands they made a lunge at the duo.
“When they started beating me, Liakat came to my rescue. Then they started beating Liakat and stabbed him repeatedly. In the attack he was severely injured. Had police taken our plea seriously and caught the accused initially, Liakat’s life would have been saved,” said Abid.
By the time Liakat was taken to the hospital in Jammu, he was already dead. “After the attack, police rushed the injured boy to Government Medical College and Hospital Jammu where the doctors declared him as dead on arrival,” said SHO Billawar, Amit Sangra,
According to Sangra, Liakat and one of the accused, Abhishek Sharma, were old friends and college mates. He said that there was an old animosity between them. “Liakat had revealed some personal secrets of Abhishek and the latter was not happy with this. On Tuesday evening, fight started with Abid, but Liakat was killed,” he said.
“We have booked the accused, Abhishek Sharma son of Ramakant of Nowshera, Mahanpur, and his brother-in-law, Honey Khajuria son of Ram Prakash of Dher, Billawar and one other person in case FIR 49/2018 under section 302, 34 of RPC at Billawar Police Station,” Sangra said.
All the accused, according to him, have been arrested by the police teams constituted by the SSP Kathua, Shridhar Patil. Meanwhile, the relatives of the slain youngster, in the evening, shouted slogans against the accused and police when the body of Liakat reached the village.
They also blocked the Phinter-Billawar road for about half an hour and later resorted to stone pelting at the house of the accused. Followed by this, SSP Kathua, Shridhar Patil and Additional SP concerned, SHO concerned reached the spot and assured action against the accused after which they called off the protest.
Meanwhile, National Conference Provincial President Mr Devender Singh Rana on Wednesday expressed grave concern over deteriorating law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the PDP-BJP dispensation has failed to instill a sense of security among the people.
Referring to stabbing incident in Billawar in Jammu and stone pelting on a bus carrying students near Shopian in Kashmir, the Provincial President said such incidents shake the confidence of people about their safety and security.
He cautioned the government against abdicating its responsibility towards protecting the lives and properties of citizens, who are feeling a sense of helplessness. He hoped that the law and order machinery would intensify vigil and take earnest measures in identifying and booking anti-social elements.
Rana said all right thinking people are perturbed over the incidents of violence and condemn the acts of targeting innocents.