Killing of Ummar Khan: Difference between revisions

{{Incident infobox

|date=2017-11-10

|lat=27.5047

|lon=76.9988

|killed=1

|injured=1

|trigger=cattle transport

}}

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'''Ummar Khan''' (also spelled Umar Khan), a 35-year-old man from Ghatmika village in Bharatpur district, [[Rajasthan]], was killed on 10 November 2017 while transporting cows by pickup truck through Alwar district.<ref name="scroll-2017" /><ref name="tribune-2017" /> His family alleged that cow vigilantes shot him and left his body on railway tracks near Ramgarh, and police arrested eight men in the case by January 2018.<ref name="week-2017" /><ref name="quint-2018" />

Ummar Khan lived in Ghatmika village in Pahari tehsil of Bharatpur district.<ref name="tribune-2017" /> The killing took place in Alwar district, where dairy farmer Pehlu Khan had been lynched by suspected cow vigilantes in April 2017, an incident that drew national attention.<ref name="scroll-2017" /><ref name="quint-2017" /> Members of the Meo Muslim community gathered outside the Alwar district hospital after Ummar Khan's death to demand action against the attackers.<ref name="scroll-2017" />

On 10 November 2017 Ummar Khan was travelling in a pickup truck with two companions, Tahir and Javed, carrying cows from Alwar towards Bharatpur.<ref name="scroll-2017" /><ref name="week-2017" /> His uncle said a group of about seven men stopped the vehicle after it entered the Govindgarh area and fired at Khan, and that the attackers described themselves as cow vigilantes.<ref name="scroll-2017" /> Tahir Khan, who received a bullet injury, told relatives that six to eight people had attacked them on their way home.<ref name="week-2017" />

Police found an abandoned pickup truck near Govindgarh on the morning of 10 November with five cows, one of them dead.<ref name="scroll-2017" /> Khan's body was found near railway tracks in the Ramgarh area of Alwar district and was later identified by relatives.<ref name="scroll-2017" /><ref name="week-2017" /> The family alleged that the attackers placed the body on the tracks to make the death appear accidental.<ref name="quint-2017" />

Police registered a murder case on a complaint by Khan's relatives and, separately, a cow smuggling case against Khan, Tahir and Javed.<ref name="week-2017" /> Two men were arrested on 13 November; according to the Additional Superintendent of Police, they said they had suspected the truck was carrying cows, threw nails in its path, and claimed its occupants fired first.<ref name="quint-2017" /> Alwar Superintendent of Police Rahul Prakash said there was "no term like cow vigilante" in police vocabulary and that it was a murder case.<ref name="week-2017" />

On 20 November 2017 police arrested Tahir and Javed under the Rajasthan bovine animal protection act, and a court sent them to judicial custody; a police officer said the arrests were unrelated to the murder case.<ref name="tribune-2017" /> In January 2018 police arrested four more men, bringing the number of arrests in the murder case to eight, on charges including rioting, murder and attempt to murder.<ref name="quint-2018" /> No report of a trial outcome was found.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said the state did not have enough manpower to control every situation in time.<ref name="quint-2017" /> Congress leaders Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot criticised the state government and called for a fair investigation, and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi sought an impartial inquiry.<ref name="quint-2017" /> A group of non-governmental organisations led by the People's Union for Civil Liberties described the arrest of Tahir and Javed as a "travesty of justice" and called them eyewitnesses and victims.<ref name="tribune-2017" />

The body was moved to SMS Hospital in Jaipur, where a hospital official said the post-mortem examination could not proceed because family members had not turned up.<ref name="week-2017" /> Khan's uncle demanded compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the family and Rs 25 lakh for Tahir Khan.<ref name="week-2017" /> Khan was buried on 15 November 2017 after the post-mortem.<ref name="tribune-2017" />

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<ref name="scroll-2017">{{Cite news|url=https://scroll.in/latest/857587/rajasthan-vigilantes-allegedly-kill-muslim-man-in-alwar-for-transporting-cows|title=Rajasthan: Vigilantes allegedly kill Muslim man in Alwar for transporting cows|publisher=Scroll.in|date=2017-11-12|access-date=2026-10-31}}</ref>