Jalalabad (Shamli): Jalalabad, a Muslim-majority qasba in western Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli, shot to infamy for the death of a Muslim scrap worker in early July this year.
A number of reports indicated that Firoz Qureshi, around 30-years-old, may have been lynched by a Hindu mob on July 4, 2024. But the state police soon lodged a first information report against two Muslim journalists and three others for calling the incident a “lynching” on social media. This move was criticised by journalist unions and many in the civil society.
Since then, Firoz’s death has polarised many in the region. While his family members believe that he died owing to injuries caused by the alleged beating that he faced at the hands of a Hindu mob, others have been inclined to speculate differently. Consequently, even after a fortnight, Firoz’s death has remained shrouded in mystery.
Business as usual
The newly-built and bustling alleys of Jalalabad market appear to have moved on, mirroring a usual business day, largely unaffected by the death of a poor scrap worker. Small grocery stores, makeshift eateries, repair shops, and fruit vendors make up the market.
Tucked inside its narrow lanes is a dense neighbourhood where the predominantly Muslim working classes struggle everyday to make a living. Firoz lived here with his wife, and his three children – two boys and an infant daughter. Their eldest is around five-years-old.
Firoz’s wife has not stepped out of her home ever since Firoz passed. His sons are scampering around, looking for a stray mobile phone to play video games on. The rest of his family are distraught.
Arshad Qureshi, a cattle trader and one of Firoz’s brothers, seeks insaaf, or justice, for his brother. “Many influential people have come to meet us since Firoz’s death. We have only asked for insaaf and a fair investigation. We do not expect any compensation from anyone,” Arshad says, adding that the whole family is worried about the future of Firoz’s wife and children.
Amjad and his brothers, along with their families, had gone to Hasanpur Lohari, another qasba a few kilometres away, to attend their nephew’s wedding on July 4. It was around late evening, when Amjad returned home, that he was informed by an acquaintance that the police had detained Firoz for his alleged involvement in a scuffle. He immediately reached the police chowki, where some policemen handed Firoz over to him.
“He was half-naked, and almost unconscious. His body had marks that clearly showed he was beaten up,” Amjad tells The Wire.
“The police said that some residents of Ghaasmandi had complained that Firoz was creating trouble in the area. So, the police had picked him up,” Amjad says.
Firoz’s brother Afzal. Photo: Video screengrab/The Wire
A loudspeaker and a wedding gift
When Amjad enquired with people of the neighbourhood about what conspired during the day, he was told that some Hindus in the adjacent mohalla Ganga Aryanagar, also known as Ghaasmandi, had beaten him up after an argument over the use of a loudspeaker. Ganga Aryanagar is one of the few localities in Jalalabad with a mixed population.
Unlike other mohallas of Jalalabad, Ganga Aryanagar is markedly prosperous. Wholesale grocery stores owned by Bania and Punjabi communities, a sparkly clean Jain temple, a school and a guest house managed by the temple trust, and a string of well-maintained houses owned by both Hindus and Muslims populate it.
According to Amjad, Firoz as a scrap dealer and like any other street vendor, used a loudspeaker that played a pre-recorded vendors’ call urging people to sell scrap to him. On July 4, Amjad says, Firoz left home early in the morning on his usual rounds. “But he could not do any business all day, so he decided to go for another round to the mohalla near the Jain Mandir at around 5 in the evening. That was the last we saw him before all of us left for the wedding. Firoz told us that he would attend the wedding reception a day later, on July 5. He hoped to make some money for a wedding gift,” Amjad tells The Wire.
Cut to 9 pm, Amjad brought Firoz to his home in a semi-conscious state. He said that by the time he and his brothers brought in a doctor, he was dead. “He couldn’t move, he was asphyxiated,” Kaif, Firoz’s nephew, adds.
The Jain Mandir square where the incident allegedly happened.
Kaif says that a few Muslim acquaintances who lived near the Jain Mandir told him that Firoz was dragged to the Jain Mandir chauraha (square) and beaten up after an argument ensued between Firoz and some residents over the noise that the Firoz’s loudspeaker made. Kaif immediately showed a picture showing Firoz begging a crowd to let him go. The picture had the daily Punjab Kesari’s watermark stamped on it. He also showed a video that showed what appeared to be blood clots on Firoz’s body and small wounds but no blood stains. The Wire could not confirm whether the video was shot before Firoz died or after his death.
By the time Firoz died, his family and a number of neighbours had gathered at the local police chowki. By this time, the eldest brother in the family, Afzal Qureshi, had arrived to speak with the police. “Many amongst us were feeling extremely angry over the way Firoz had been beaten. They urged us to block the roads. But I was categorical that our fight should be legal and peaceful and we will seek justice through proper means,” Afzal tells The Wire.
Kaif, Firoz’s nephew.
An FIR emerges
Afzal narrates what he learnt about the episode leading to Firoz’s death. “I am illiterate. I told the police what I had heard, while one among them was noting down my narration,” Afzal said. Afzal’s version became the basis of the FIR lodged by the police on July 5.
The FIR, and subsequently the post-mortem report, later became the primary factors that have created confusion over the death of Firoz.
Curiously, Afzal’s version is worded quite peculiarly. For instance, this is how Afzal is said to have described his brother Firoz, “…Yesterday, on 04/07/24 at around 08:00 pm, my brother Firoz who used to take drugs occasionally (kabhi kabhaar nasha kar leta tha) had gone to Ganga Aryangar for some work…”
The FIR then goes on to quote Afzal as saying that residents of Ganga Aryanagar – Pinki, Pankaj, Rajendra and their associates – beat up Firoz, before he was rescued by two persons named Ikram and Arshad with great difficulty. The FIR then added Afzal as saying that Firoz died at 11 pm and urging strict action against the accused persons.
On being asked about his description of Firoz as an addict, Afzal says, “When I was narrating the incident, a police personnel asked me whether he used drugs. I replied he used drugs occasionally. So, the police insisted that it should be included in the complaint.”
“Let us assume for once that he used drugs. But is it justified that a person who uses drugs should be flogged in the public,” Kaif asks.
Also read: Uttar Pradesh: 11 Days After Death by Lynching, Muslim Man Charged With Dacoity, Assault of Woman
Whither mob lynching?
Meanwhile, the police has dismissed all claims that termed Firoz’s death as a result of “mob lynching”, and has foregrounded aspects of Firoz’s “drug addiction” and his “unruly behaviour” in an intoxicated state. The post-mortem report also does not indicate any “wounds” on Firoz’s body that could have been the consequence of the beating he allegedly faced.
Speaking with The Wire, the Station House Officer of Thana Bhawan police station, Jitendra Kumar Sharma, who is also the investigating officer (IO) in the case, says, “Firoz, in a state of intoxication, forcibly entered a number of houses, following which residents of the locality complained to the police. He died after three hours of the incident.”
Asked why the police handed over Firoz to his family members instead of registering a case against his alleged trespassing, Sharma says, “The residents were not willing to register a case. As he was in a bad state, possibly because of an overdose, we thought it fit to hand him over to his family members.”
Sharma adds that the police will act according to the evidence gathered in the case. “The post-mortem report clearly says that there were no wounds found in his body that could have resulted in death. The viscera from his body has been preserved. We will take any further action after the viscera report comes.”
He insists that the reports declaring Firoz’s death as “lynching” are merely rumours and urges people to restrain from it, as such claims may “disrupt communal harmony in the region.”
Sharma says that there is no evidence to suggest that Firoz was beaten up, nor are there any eyewitnesses to buttress such a claim. The initial reports suggesting a scuffle over a loudspeaker or Firoz’s possible attempt at theft are also rejected by Sharma, who says that the evidence gathered after the initial probe did not back any such claim.
Another police official in Jalalabad, who did not want to be named, tells The Wire that no camera footage has been found where the residents were seen beating up Firoz. Notably, the Jain Mandir square where Firoz was allegedly beaten up has a number of CCTV cameras installed by the temple establishment.
As a result, the police have not arrested the accused persons named by Afzal. Firoz’s family members resent the fact that no action has been taken against the accused persons, but hope that the final post-mortem report will clear the air.
No ‘hate crime’, no cause of death
As the confusion over Firoz’s death has only exacerbated, multiple questions remain. Why has the police delayed the testing of viscera? Despite the sensitive nature of the case, the police have shown no hurry in clearing the clouds of confusion around Firoz’s death, and have instead resorted to booking social media users and journalists for disrupting communal harmony.
There are also some obvious discrepancies. While Afzal and others in the family said that Firoz left home for Jain Mandir around late evening at around 5 pm, the FIR notes that he left home towards Ganga Aryanagar only at 8 pm. The police claim that Firoz died three hours later at around 11 pm but have not clarified the number of hours that Firoz spent in the police chowki – something his family members appear to have no clear understanding about either. Only a clear timeline of the day can clear such doubts.
The family members say that Firoz went to Ganga Aryanagar on his usual round to collect scrap but the FIR notes that he went there “for some work”. The motive of Firoz’s trespassing, too, has not been established. The police have not said anything about Firoz’s possible attempt at theft, even as it does not appear to have verified the alleged fight that ensued over the loudspeaker noise.
While the police have dismissed a case of “hate crime”, they have not established a cause of death as yet. This has further intensified speculation on the matter, including the police’s own guess that Firoz may have died because of an overdose.
In Jalalabad, most people were tightlipped or claim to know little about what conspired on July 4. Both Muslim and Hindu residents express their distress over the incident that has garnered attention all over, but most also say that they got to know about it only a day or two later. A Hindu resident in Ganga Aryanagar tells The Wire, “We came to know about the incident only the next day. We heard that someone was trying to break into a Jain household.” They say that Muslims and Hindus have always lived together in the locality, and it was improbable that something like “lynching” could happen here.
Another Hindu resident says, “Both Hindus and Muslims live together here but barely interact with each other. But our businesses surely overlap and we work together in such times.”
Meanwhile, even as journalists have been booked, a video showing a Hindu godman justifying the “lynching” of a “Muslim thief” has become viral in the region. Several Hindutva activists elsewhere, too, have supported such “instant justice” for “Muslim thieves”.
As both the police and Jalalabad residents have struggled to name even a single eyewitness and produce conclusive evidence in the case, the scrap dealer Firoz’s death has been cursed to obscurity.
