Mail Today
December 29, 2008
Bangalorean killed for talking in Urdu
By Sowmya Aji in Bangalore
A TEENAGER paid with his life for the ‘ crime’ of intruding into a Brigadier’s house and speaking on his mobile phone in Urdu, triggering off the fear that he could be a terrorist.
Nineteen- year- old Mohammad Mukkaram was killed by sentries in Bangalore early on Sunday when he broke into the compound of Brigadier P. S. Ravindranath’s house. He was escaping from the police, who had caught him drag racing on his Yamaha RX motorcycle near the city’s prestigious M. G. Road.
Bangalore police commissioner Shankar M. Bidri defended the guards for mistaking Mukkaram to be a terrorist. “ Our men were chasing him when he vanished into the Army area. The cops asked sentries to look for him.
They heard someone speaking and thought it was the Brigadier.
Then they spotted a man on the terrace talking on his mobile in Urdu. They told him to surrender but he did not listen. Anyone in the situation would assume he was a terrorist?” Bidri said the sentries fired into the air but Mukkaram did not respond. He suddenly jumped down and ran towards the compound wall. One of the guards opened fire again.
Bidri said a bullet from Havaldar Sharma’s INSAS rifle grazed Mukkaram’s heart. The teen, however, managed to drop over the compound wall onto the road. When the sentries rushed out, he was missing.
Police learnt later that Mukkaram had been taken to St Philomena’s Hospital by some unidentified persons. They told hospital staff that Mukkaram had an accident near Leela Palace on Airport Road, which is about 5 km from the Brigadier’s house. Bidri said Mukkaram was declared dead on arrival. The staff informed the police only after they spotted a bullet injury.
“ Those who took Mukkaram to the hospital gave a mobile number that was traced to a person called Saud. He has no clue about the incident,” Bidri said.
While a case of trespass has been registered against Mukkaram, a case has been registered against Sharma, too.
Mukkaram’s uncle Chand Pasha said: “ He was calling home at that time. He told us he was stuck on the roof of a house while ducking the police. He was crazy about drag racing and we were aware of that.” Mukkaram, a first- year BBM student at the prestigious Baldwin College, was popular in the illegal street drag race circuit by his nickname “ Wheeler”. Mukkaram’s father Mustaq Ahmed, a driver in Chamrajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan’s transport company National Travels, refused to comment.
But his relative said: “ We are angry Mukkaram was considered a terrorist. He should have surrendered, but why was he shot in the chest? We don’t believe they asked him to surrender.
Even the police admit he was shot because he was speaking in Urdu and they thought he was a terrorist.” An Army statement said: “ When the intruder did not heed the armed guard’s warning to surrender, he was fired upon.”
sowmya. aji@ mailtoday. in
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