Murder, gang rape, and vandalism in the name of cow protection are changing the face of the Mewat region in Haryana and the future of its predominant inhabitants, the Meo community.
AT Dingerheri village in Tauru tehsil of Mewat district in Haryana, Ibrahim, a landless peasant, retired for the day along with his family on August 24. The night was quite warm. Ibrahim and his wife Rasheeda, and his cousin Zafruddin and his wife Ayesha slept on cots placed outside his single room dwelling. The children, including his two nieces Sameena (name changed) and Safiya (name changed), slept inside.
But Ibrahim and Rasheeda did not live to see the sunrise of August 25. They were set upon with unimaginable rage after midnight. The attackers tied up their hands before raining blows on them. Ayesha lay unconscious with a deep gash on her face while Zafruddin lay comatose in a government hospital. The head of the family, Zooruddin, escaped with his life as he had spent the night in the fields three kilometres away.
The attack lasted for three hours from midnight. Ibrahim’s nieces, one of them a minor, were dragged out of the house and gang-raped.
“I heard the screams of my uncle and aunt. I heard loud threatening voices asking me to open the door. There were five or more of them. One of them had a shovel in his hand. My 12-year-old cousin Naved was hit and he ran towards me. They asked me about my husband. I said he would be coming for Id. They said, ‘so you will eat cow meat’. I said no. They said, ‘We will celebrate Id for you.’ I tried to run; they said they would kill my eight-month-old son. Then they started beating us, asked us for money and jewellery. There was nothing to steal. Then they dragged us to my uncle’s house which was close by, and made us remove our clothes and four of them raped us. Our throats were dry due to the crying and beating. They kicked me on my private parts. My stomach was hurting. We asked for water, they gave us urine to drink. I heard one of them tell someone on the phone that they had killed four people,” Sameena told Frontline.
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