Muzaffarnagar aftermath: A locked house, a grieving family, police, paramilitary and army
Sandeep Unnithan Muzaffarnagar, September 11, 2013 | UPDATED 23:55 IST
Police at the entrance of Kawal village, Muzaffarnagar district. The village has seen heavy police presence since the August 27 triple murders. Photo: Vikram Sharma/India Today
Shahnawaz Qureishi, 25, a small-time cloth hawker from the village, was allegedly murdered by two youth -- Sachin, 24, and Gaurav, 18 -- for sexually harassing their sister.
Watch the slideshow of the village
The two youngsters, who lived in Malikpur barely two kilometres away, were lynched by Muslim villagers of Kawal.
The murders triggered off riots elsewhere in the district but the village of approximately 12,000 people has not known any disruption since August 27.
A peace committee, formed in the village a week ago, now meets every day; a small group of villagers walks behind a youngster dressed as Lord Hanuman, signals the start of Ramlila festivities.
The village, which is evenly divided among Hindus and Muslims, is calm. It is a calm enforced by personnel in khaki and olive green fatigues.
Hundreds of police personnel stand guard even as military flag marches that kick up dust clouds through the narrow village bylanes.
A Superintendent of Police from Ghaziabad sits in the control room that functions out of an abandoned house and engages the villagers in light banter over tea and biscuits.
Out of sight from the policemen, villagers whisper about anti-social elements in their midst who brutally murdered the boys.
Shahnawaz's family fled the village fearing retaliation around a week back. They haven't returned so far even to claim the Rs.10-lakh compensation being offered by the tehsildar.
The family home, a single-room brick dwelling in Hussainpura mohalla on the village outskirts, stands locked. Work has also stopped on the two-room concrete home the Qureishis were building for themselves on an adjacent plot. Shahnawaz was a small cloth trader who frequently plied his wares in Bangalore and Chennai.
Two kilometres down a narrow dirt path, the tiny village of Malikpur silently mourns its dead sons. The incessant cawing of crows at sundown is the only sound.
Bishan Singh, 45, a sugarcane farmer, lost his son Sachin and his sister's son Gaurav, a student of 12th standard. He now sits with other male members of his family on charpoys outside the family home, greeting visitors who drop by to offer condolences. Two policemen sit on chairs, AK-47s on their laps, fanning themselves in the enervating heat. There is only one happy face there. Sachin's son Gagan, 2, gurgles, laughs and darts around the charpoys.
"He keeps asking for his father," says Bishan Singh. "I don't know what to tell the boy."
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