It is with great difficulty that Abdul Sameer stands up, with the help of a walker. “The attackers ruined not just my life, but that of my family members too,” he says at an ayurveda hospital near Adyanaka village in Vitla, bordering Kerala.
Sameer has been undergoing treatment for the last one month to regain strength in the lower body. The life of this 33-year-old driver from Uppala in Kerala changed after he was attacked by 50 Hindutva activists near the busy Bhagwan Mahaveer Circle on August 24, 2014. His vehicle, in which he was taking cows from Uppinangady towards Thokkottu, was stopped and he was hit with iron rods.
“One among those who attacked me was a friend, who also owned a pick-up van,” he recalls.
“In the name of meat of cow that is eaten by many in the society, they incapacitated my son,” says 60-year-old Sheik Ali, Sameer’s father, who is worried about the future of his daughter-in-law Zairabi and her five children. Sameer’s eldest child is 13 while the youngest is three.
Grievously injured, Sameer was treated for nearly four months in a private hospital in the city. He then underwent treatment at other hospitals in Mangaluru and in Kerala before being admitted to the hospital in Adyanaka.
It’s been difficult for the family to meet the treatment and household expenses. Treatment costs Rs.1,500 per day, says Sameer.
While some of his friends have helped meet treatment expenses, the aged father has resumed operating the van to transport fish, and his wife helps by selling burqas.
