Pehlu Khan's little son still awaits father's arrival

The residents of Nuh tehsil in Haryana close to the Rajasthan border are terrified and shocked after the death of Pehlu Khan, who was beaten up by cow vigilantes on April 1.

The house of the 55-year-old dairy farmer is located in Jaisinghpura, 15 km from Nuh tehsil headquarters. The incident has shocked not only his eight children but also the entire tehsil.

Khan’s eldest son, Irshad, who was witness to the brutal incident, told DH, “Cow vigilantes mercilessly used sticks, rods and belts to attack my father. We were stopped near Behror by some people (cow vigilantes) as we were on our way back to Alwar in the pick-up jeeps,” said Irshad, who was returning with his father from Jaipur cow fair. Irshad said the vigilantes told them that they were from the Shiv Sena and the Bajrang Dal.

‘They tore our documents’

“We had all the relevant papers to show that we were carrying the cows for dairy farming. We showed them the receipt of sale and purchase. But they were in no mood to listen to us. They tore our documents and attacked my father in front of my eyes,” Irshad said.

For Khan’s relatives, wife and children, it is hard to believe that he is no more. Irshad is clueless on how he is going to console his siblings. “My youngest brother is 5 years old and it’s very difficult to explain to him that ‘Abba’ will never return. When we left for Jaipur, our father told him that we will return with new cows to produce more milk. But now I don’t have an answer to their questions.”

Most of the villagers are into dairy farming and visit Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to buy cows and buffalos. But now most of them are in shock after Khan’s killing. The nondescript Jaisinghpura village, which has about 5,000 population, is in southwest Haryana and is dominated by Muslims. On Friday, the Rajasthan government sent a report to the Union Home Ministry that a special police team has been constituted to arrest the accused in the lynching of a Muslim man in Alwar.

On Thursday, members of the medical board, which performed the postmortem, confirmed that Khan died of injuries and cardiac arrest was secondary. The Rajasthan Police on Wednesday night arrested three youths in Alwar in connection with Khan’s death.