A 14-year-old boy from Muzaffarnagar (UP) was beaten, branded with a hot iron rod and asked ‘Will your Allah come to save you?’ Narrating the harrowing account of his detention by the police, the boy recalls on December 20, when he returned home after namaz he was told that his brother has not returned home. So he went out to look for his brother. But as soon as he went out, police caught him. They tried to throw him in the fire but then burned his hand by placing a hot rod.
The boy was detained on 20th December 2018 and released on 24th December 2018.
The boy of Muzaffarnagar told that he was kept in illegal detention in the barracks. For two days, he was not given food. Similar atrocities were done to other detainees also. The boy was repeatedly asked by the cops to “give them a hundred names”. The cops not only abused them but their Holy Quran. He was asked, “Will your ALLAH come to save you?” The detainees were beaten and made to chant slogans like Jai Shri Ram.
Another boy from Sambhal town was also picked up by the police and subjected to brutal torture. He was picked on 20th December but not released yet. The boy’s mother told that he is her youngest son. He went out around 4 pm with another child. He went towards the police station near the Clock Tower to see the boy who had died but was detained by the police.
Karwan-e-Mohabbat’s fact-finding team visited the worst-affected places including Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Sambhal and Firozabad and noted that all the violence was directed towards Muslim residents of these towns are now filled with immense grief and unimaginable fear. They found that men in uniform did not even spare young children during the anti-CAA protests. Police stripped the minors and thrashed them heavily.
According to the team of Karwan-e-Mohabbat, 19 minor boys are still in police custody in Sambhal. In Muzaffarnagar, police arrested 40 minors from an orphanage madrasa and beat up the children.