'I’m getting killed, Ummar screamed as bullets flew'

BADER (HARYANA): It was a morning that Tahir Khan and Javed, the associates of Ummar Khan who was gunned down allegedly by ‘gau rakshaks’ on Friday, will find hard to forget.

Both Tahir and Javed, who have a few cases of

cattle smuggling

registered against them, had gone with Ummar to bring cows from Dausa to the deceased’s village in

Bharatpur

district. The trio was taken aback when it reached Ghahenkar on the

Alwar-Bharatpur border

. “It was about 5am when suddenly seven persons started firing randomly at our vehicle,” recalled Tahir, who is recuperating at his relative’s house here after being discharged from a hospital.

“Whether they were gau rakshaks or people from Bajrang Dal, we don’t know. They were armed with all kind of weapons. One even had a belt of cartridges slung across his chest. Suddenly, both Ummar and I were hit by bullets. It was then that Ummar screamed, “I am getting killed, let’s run’,” said Tahir, showing the bullet injuries on his left upper arm. While a bullet grazed past his left underarm, another one pierced his upper arm.

“Javed was driving the vehicle. Ummar was on the other side and I was in the middle. We stopped the vehicle, flung open the door and ran. I did not know where Ummar or Javed were, nor could I look out for them. I was bleeding,” said tahir. Javed, who escaped the bullets, fled. “They fired at me, but I was lucky. I ran and reached Ghatmika, 2km from the spot,” recalled Javed.

Tahir wasn’t so lucky. “Out in the fields, they began chasing us and then I was hit on the back of my head by what appeared to be the butt of a gun. I fell down. A person caught my leg and tried to break it. But then another person interrupted and said, ‘Rakesh let him be, anyway he’s dying, why waste time on him’. Then they left me and went away,” he realled.

From there, Tahir managed to reach a village in Sikri from where a motorcycle rider brought him home. “I pleaded with him to ferry me,” he said. Later, Tahir met a quack who removed the bullet from his upper arm. They didn’t approached the police as they feared the cops might arrest them since there were cases of cow smuggling registered against them