A day after four persons were killed and several vehicles and houses torched, an eerie silence hangs over Azizpur village of Muzaffarpur district in north Bihar. The village, inhabited by the minority community, was deserted with only a handful of elderly persons huddled in a half-burnt house to tell the frightening tale to the visiting police officials, politicians and media persons.
Security forces were searching the nearby mustard fields for more bodies. Thirteen persons have been arrested in connection with the incident, said the police.
“Just now we’ve found the body of a boy in the nearby field,” said R.K. Mishra, Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur. Mr. Mishra, along with senior district officials, was camping in the village. “Unless all the villagers return to their homes it is very difficult to say how many of them were killed in the Sunday incident,” the SP told The Hindu . He said the situation was tense but under control.
Along with a boy, Mohd Ghula Jila, at least three persons were charred to death while several others, including girls and women were injured on Sunday when hundreds of armed men from nearby Bahilwara Mali Tola village surrounded Azizpur and started beating up inhabitants and indulging in rampant arson .
They had raided the village after the body of a youth Bhartendu Sahni was found on a field near the mosque of Azizpur. The youth had gone missing on January 9 and a case was registered.
Locals said Bhartendu Sahni, 19, was in love with a Muslim girl of Azizpur. The girl’s brother, Sadaquat Ali alias Vikki, was the main accused in the Sahni missing case. The rampaging mob held Ali responsible for the death of Sahni and torched everything came in its way while beating up people.
Three members of Salma Khatun’s family — her husband Mohd. Akhtar Hussain, son Mohd. Shamim and grandson Shamsul Mushtafa — lost their lives in the incident.
Mohd. Ibrahim, grandfather of Sadaquat Ali, said: “Vikki is not like a boy who could murder anyone. He studies in a college.”
Vikki’s father Wasi Ahmad is an advocate and agriculturalist, while his brother Mohd. Ibrahim works in Saudi Arabia. All other family members of Vikki have fled the village. The police have arrested 13 persons for the attack.
