Mob enters Muslim Kargil veteran's house, labels them Bangladeshis, asked them citizenship proof

Indian Express

6 days ago

A mob of 60-70 people entered the house of a Muslim Kargil War veteran's family around midnight in Pune on Saturday, labelled them as Bangladeshi, and demanded ID proofs, alleged the family. The mob threatened the family with violence, said Shamshad Shaikh, a resident of Chandan Nagar. Plain-clothes police present on the spot did not stop the harassment, he alleged, and took the family members to the police station at night. The police said the operation was based on a tip-off about Bangladeshis, and it was investigating the allegation of the mob entering the house.
A written complaint was submitted by the family to the Chandan Nagar Police Station and the FIR is being filed, said police. Sheikh's uncle Hakimuddin is a retired Kargil War veteran and multiple other members of his family have served in the Indian Army.
Sheikh described the events of the night of July 26, 'Suddenly at 11:30-12 in the night, these people started kicking on our door and entered our house demanding IDs.
Groups of 7-10 people kept entering our house and they even went into our bedrooms and woke up the women and children. We showed them our Aadhar Card, Pan Card, and even Voter IDs but they kept saying these are all fake.' He says that they were then taken to the police station in a police van and told by Inspector Seema Dhakne that they must report back the next morning or they would be declared Bangladeshis. Dhakne could not be reached for a comment on her phone after multiple attempts.
Shamshad Sheikh runs a truck and lorry transport business. His uncle Irshad Ahmad, who resides in the same house, expounded the family's army history, 'Our family has a 130 year history of serving in the Indian Army. Our great-grandfather retired as a hawaldar in the army. Our grandfather was a subedar in the army, and his brother was Jamshed Khan DGP Madhya Pradesh. Two of my uncles were subedar majors in the army and are now retired–Naimullah Khan joined the army in 1962 and fought in the 1965 war and 1971 wars, Md Salim joined the army in 1968 and he fought in the 1971 war as well. My own brother Hakimuddin joined the Bombay Sapphires in 1982 in Pune and was posted across India after his training. He fought in the Kargil war and retired in 2000. He resides in Pratapgarh in UP.'
The family shared photographs of Hakimuddin and Salim's Army ID cards and pension documents. Ahmad said that his uncle moved to Pune in 1961 and his elder brother shifted here in 1978, while Ahmad himself has been residing in Pune since 1996.
DCP Somay Munde said, 'We received information that there were suspected illegal Bangladeshi nationals, so we went to the spot. Few of the people's documents were checked and some were brought to the police station, and were released as it was getting late and called back the next morning. It was done at night, as sometimes in these combing operations suspects flee away. We wanted to check what the situation was, if they were living in permanent houses. The information was that some of them were from Assam. At that point this was not found (to be true), but we are still investigating.' He added that the family's allegation was that it was Bajrang Dal members who entered the house. Munde said that the tip-off was from an informant.
With anger in his voice, Ahmad said, 'Our family has been serving the nation on its borders. 'Tamam dushmanon se loha liye (fought with all enemies of the country).' My uncle's hand was injured in the 71' war with a bomb. It is very regrettable that we have sacrificed all this for the country and we are being asked for proof. In a peaceful city like Pune where we have been residing for the last 64 years we had not heard of such a thing.'
He added, 'They are waking up 5-year-old kids at night, the kid wasn't even able to stand and fell down. Why did the police summon us at 2 am to the police station? Was that a time for the police to come to our house? Are we history-sheeters, mafias, or do we have terrorist tags or MCOCA or TADA on our heads for the police to come at midnight?'
City NCP working president Pradeep Deshmukh said this was a serious incident as a family was mistreated by a mob. 'No one should take law into their own hands. The people should have trusted the police department instead of entering the house of the family at midnight. The family does not deserve this treatment and it is wrong if a family is ill-treated for belonging to a separate community,' he said.
Deshmukh said that if police find any substance in the complaint against the family, then they must take action as required, but considering the background of serving the Armed Forces the family should be treated properly.
'The police should take action against the mob and if their complaint against the family is proved wrong they should then take further action against them as well,' Dhokne said. He added that the police supporting the mob should also face action. 'We will take up the issue with higher authorities on the treatment meted out to the family that has served the Armed Forces,' said the NCP leader.
Soham is a Correspondent with the Indian Express in Pune.
A journalism graduate, he was a fact-checker before joining the Express. Soham currently covers education and is also interested in civic issues, health, human rights, and politics. ... Read More