Shajapur violence could have been averted had police acted swiftly, claims MP locals

Bhopal, Sep 26 (IANS) The locals in Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur on Thursday claimed that the violence which claimed one life and injured ten others could have been averted had the local area police acted swiftly.

“Sameer Khan and Mahendra Patel along with several others outside my home started abusing Aneesh Khan (brother-in-law of Tabassum). They fired several shots and left the place threatening to teach a lesson to Aneesh,” said Tabassum Arif Khan, a local in her complaint which was filed in the Maxi police station on September 23.

She said that the locals had alerted local area police at least three days before the violence occurred on Wednesday night.

Tabassum had filed two complaints at Maxi police station between September 22 and 24.

A complaint copy available with IANS revealed that in her repeated complaints, Tabassum had informed police that Sameer Khan and Mahendra Patel along with several others were hurling abusive language outside her home.

Having found no action from Maxi police station, Tabassum filed a complaint to Shajapur SP Yashpal Rajput on September 24. She also informed that she had gone to file her complaint at Maxi police station but the police did not file the case, which made her meet SP.

Locals told IANS that Aneesh Khan (Tabassum’s brother-in-law) Mahendra Patel had an old enmity. Mahendra along with Sameer Khan and others arrived again outside Tabassum’s home and fired gunshots.

However, the opposite group objected to Patel and Sameer Khan’s repeated abusive words, which led to a clash between the two groups. The clash escalated and they pelted stones at each other.

Amjad Khan, brother of Aneesh Khan received a bullet injury and fell down. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and was declared dead on arrival. One minor boy – Junaid Khan (Tabassum’s son) also received a bullet injury and he was referred to a private hospital in Indore.

“Tension had been simmering between the two sides in Maxi town of the district for the last two days. On Wednesday evening, they had a face-off resulting in the violence,” Inspector General (IG) Ujjain Range, Santosh Singh told the press on Thursday.

One of the family members told IANS that the police had arrested Aneesh Khan, however, Shajapur Police was yet to make any confirmation about his arrest on Thursday.

He also said that some people were trying to make it a conflict between Hindu-Muslim, which is not the truth.

–IANS

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