Rajasthan poll: Nasir-Junaid lynching casts shadow on Kaman segment

Animesh Singh

Alwar, November 24

It is said time is a great healer but the February lynching of Muslim youths Nasir and Junaid, both residents of Ghatmeeka village in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, is still fresh in the memories of the people in the area and of neighbouring districts like Alwar.

With Rajasthan set to vote on Saturday, people in Kaman Assembly constituency, home to Ghatmeeka, hold the key to the future of Congress candidate and sitting MLA Zahida Khan. Ahead of polls, the horrific crime, where both youths were lynched and torched alive by a suspected cow vigilante group in Haryana’s Nuh on suspicion of cow smuggling, continues to cast a shadow on the segment with several locals unhappy with Khan for not raising the issue in her campaign.

Mohammad Hanif, an elderly teacher who runs a school in Bakhtal ki Chauki in rural Alwar, told The Tribune that Zahida Khan did not speak about Nasir-Junaid’s killing and people are unhappy with her over it.

Yunus, who runs a salon in Alwar rural, around 70 km from Kaman, is also aware of the incident. “The Congress faces a challenge this time,” he says.

Kaman, which falls in Mewat region neighbouring Haryana, has a sizeable Muslim population of around one lakh out of the total 2.5 lakh voters and has been a pocket borough of the Congress.