Aides of Saifuddin, who was a Hyderabad resident, demanded job for his wife, ex-gratia for daughters' education and a house.
The accused RPF constable Chetan Singh Choudhary (left) and the burial procession of the deceased Syed Saifuddin. (South First)
The Himalpur village in Karnataka’s Bidar district is habituated to going to bed early. But on the intervening night of 2 and 3 August, sleep was the last thing on the mind of several of its residents.
It was midnight. The distressed residents of the village were waiting for the mortal remains of “beloved” Syed Saifuddin (43) for nearly six hours now bearing gusty winds.
At the main road in front of the village’s Jamia mosque, details regarding Saifuddin’s last rites were mentioned in Urdu.
While all the men were mourning outside Saifuddin’s house or in the neighbourhood, the women were grieving inside.
Saifuddin’s younger brother Syed Yusuf (32) had not been able to doze off since 1 August, when the news of his brother’s death reached his ears.
They were all waiting for the mortal remains of Saifuddin, a mobile repairing technician in Hyderabad’s Gujarathi Galli, who was one among the four people shot dead by Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh Choudhary (33) on the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express (12956) near the Palghar railway station in Maharashtra around 5 am on 31 July.
It was the youngest of three brothers, Syed Yunus (24), who had gone to Mumbai to collect the mortal remains along with his cousin Mohammed Afroz.
Over 100 men, including Saifuddin’s friends from Hyderabad, gathered to receive his mortal remains, which arrived in an ambulance at 2.41 am.
Himalpur is an over-three-hour journey from Telangana’s Hyderabad. Most of the residents are engaged in low-income jobs such as masonry.
Syed Saifuddin’s mortal remains arriving at his hometown Himalpur in Bidar. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
As soon as Yunus and Afroz got down from the ambulance, they broke down in each other’s arms. A few metres away, Yusuf was crying his heart out.
Yunus got engaged a few months back but now uncertainty remains over his marriage.
Meanwhile, Saifuddin’s body was kept inside a glass casket in the courtyard of his house.
Tears did not stop from the eyes of some 20-30 women, including all six of Saifuddin’s married sisters.
Finding it hard to come to terms with reality, the shocked sisters recited prayers for him. “He left us, ya allah (oh god) he left us,” they said.
“He was the eldest of all nine siblings and took the complete onus of the house on his shoulders after our parents passed away. He used to frequently visit the village, the last time being on Bakrid (29 June),” a visibly fatigued Yusuf told South First.
All of a sudden, a few hundred residents gathered in front of Saifuddin’s house to pay their last respect as a family member, Danish, constantly perfumed the body and shroud of the deceased.
The news of Saifuddin’s demise reached a day later, on 1 August, when the Mumbai Police informed the family.
But the residents were angry at Saifuddin’s employer Zaffer Khan (76) for not informing them about the incident first.
Saifuddin was accompanying Khan to the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in Rajasthan, after which they were going to go to Khan’s brother’s place in Mumbai.
The locals claimed that Saifuddin always used to accompany Khan during his bi-annual visits to Ajmer.
“The delay made us more anxious. On top of that, we got to know that the owner (employer Khan) had called his family members to Mumbai from Hyderabad,” Saifuddin’s brother-in-law Mohammed Akheel told South First.
For the Himalpur natives and Saifuddin’s acquaintances, he is a “martyr”. They now want the Union Railway Ministry to intervene and compensate his family.
Residents conveying their demands to Bidar MLA Rahim Khan (in brown cap) of Congress at burial. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
“He was the only breadwinner of the family. His wife is a graduate. So, she should get a job in the Railways. Compensation should be paid for the education of his three daughters. The family should also be given a house. If these demands are not met, we will take out a protest rally,” Syed Mubasheer, an ex-CISF employee, told South First.
He also conveyed the demands to Bidar MLA Rahim Khan of the Congress, who was present at the burial.
Saifuddin is survived by his wife Sayeeda Anjum and three daughters, the youngest of whom is just six months old.
Speaking to South First, MLA Rahim Khan said that an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh had been announced for Saifuddin’s family from the Karnataka Chief Minister’s Fund.
“It will reach the family within a week from now. The state government will initiate talks with the Union government to announce compensation for the victim’s kin,” Rahim Khan noted.
The residents also sought the Telangana government’s help as Saifuddin had been a resident of Hyderabad for over a decade.
Residents offering final prayers before the burial of Syed Saifuddin in Bidar. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
With a heavy heart, the residents started Saifuddin’s burial proceedings after offering Fajr namaz (morning prayer) at Himalpur’s Jamia mosque.
Over 150 men, following Saifuddin’s body that was kept in a hearse, started the burial procession at 6 am.
It wended through the lanes and reached the graveyard on the outskirts of the village as people kept joining the procession.
Mandatory prayers were held before the final rites amid the heavy presence of cops. While the burial was going on, Himalpur-based social activist Syed Mansoor Ahmed Qadri claimed that the mainstream media was not interested in covering the incident.
“It is an international issue but the ‘Godi media‘ is not interested in covering it. They cover irrelevant issues like Seema Haider’s incident all day. But there has been no debate regarding this incident. Whatever information we are getting, it is through social media,” Qadri told South First.
Godi media is a pejorative term coined for the Indian news media, which allegedly supports the extreme right-wing ideologies of the BJP-led Union government.
Qadri added, “The question that arises is whether our country’s mindset is now that if a victim is Muslim, the news would not be covered but if in any incident a Muslim is accused, then they repetitively show it? I am completely against this.”
The incident has already been called a hate crime.
Western Railways authorities said soon after the shooting incident aboard the Jaipur-Mumbai Express train on 31 July that the accused constable, Chetan Choudhary, was “a short-tempered person and was suffering from mental health issues”.
There were also reports that after a medical examination, the man was declared free of any mental health issues.
However, rights activist Quadri called the accused a “mentally radicalised” man.
“In the video, he said those who wanted to live in Hindustan must support Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Those who say he was mentally unstable are wrong,” he asserted.
Mubasheer asked why the accused was issued a weapon by his superiors if he was mentally unstable. “Today it has happened to Saifuddin. Tomorrow, it can happen to any of us.”
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