New Delhi: A Kargil war veteran’s family in Pune was accused of being Bangladeshi by a mob that entered their house around midnight on July 26.

Residents of Chandan Nagar, Shamshad Sheikh’s family was forced to present their identity proofs to the mob of 60-70 people, who made threats against them, including women and children who were asleep inside the house, the Indian Express reported.

According to Shakh, policemen present on the scene in plain clothes did not stop the mob from harassing them. Some members of his family were later taken to the police station for verification.

“Around 11.30-12 in the night, these people started kicking on our door and entered our house demanding our IDs. Groups of 7-10 people kept entering our house and they even went inside our bedrooms and woke up women and children. We showed them our Aadhaar card, PAN card, and even voter IDs but they kept saying they were fake,” Shaikh told the paper.

At the police station, inspector Seema Dhakne told the family members to return in the morning, else they would be declared Bangladeshis, the report said.

Sheikh’s uncle Irshad Ahmad, who lives in the same house, said, “They are waking up 5-year-old kids at night, the child 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 charges against us for the police to come at midnight?”

The family has now submitted a written complaint at the Chandan Nagar police station. It is yet to be confirmed if an FIR has been filed on the basis of the complaint, according to the Indian Express report.

Sheikh said his family has a long history of serving in the army. His uncle Hakimuddin, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, was in the Indian army and served in the Kargil War.

“Our family has a 130-year history of serving in the Indian army. Our great-grandfather retired as a hawaldar. 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 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. My own brother Hakimuddin joined the Bombay Sappers 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,” 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 was injured in the ’71 war… It is regrettable that we have sacrificed all this for the country and are being asked for proof. In a peaceful city like Pune, where we have been residing for 64 years, we had not heard of such a thing,” Ahmad added.

DCP Somay Munde said that the police received a tip-off about Bangladeshi nationals, which prompted this combing operation. The police were sent to verify their documents, while some were brought back to the police station. “They were released as it was getting late and were called back the next morning. It was done at night, as sometimes in these combing operations suspects flee… 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,” Munde said.

The DCP added that the mob’s provenance is being investigated as the family had claimed they were Bajrang Dal members.

Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar met the family a day after the incident and later told the media that an FIR over unlawful assembly had been registered and if needed, other sections will be added.

Regarding the sequence of events, he said, “There was a crowd there, and they had a doubt that Bangladeshis live there. This was parallely informed to the police. It needs to be ascertained which one happened first – the crowd gathering at the spot or the police reaching there. But it happened almost simultaneously. Some of the actions of the crowd were prima facie objectionable.”

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