Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Dec 22: When protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent on December 19 at State Bank, 42-year-old Jaleel hurriedly picked up his children Shifani (14) and Sabil (10).

The children were left midway by their school van and they called their father for help. Jaleel picked them up and brought them to their home in Bunder. The next minute he was shot dead.

“The police killed my father in front of my eyes,” says Shifani in an interview to India Today.

Photo courtesy: India Today

The shootout has changed the life of Jaleel’s family members forever. A doted father, Jaleel did odd jobs and his daily wage was a source of income for the family.

Jaleel's family members say that only around 50 to 100 people were protesting and not a mob of thousands as the police claimed initially. "Jaleel was not even a part of the protest. He had accompanied his children home from school and was near the gate when a bullet hit his eye. He collapsed and was declared brought dead in the hospital," a relative recalls.

One of Jaleel’s relatives condemns the police for open firing and taking innocent lives, while the protesters could have been managed easily through other methods.

Jaleel and 23-year-old Nausheen died due to firing by police during the protest. Soon after, curfew was declared in Mangaluru and mobile internet was banned for 48 hours.

Some journalists who had interviewed the family members of Jaleel and Nausheen were also detained. The cops stated that they were detained as they did not have authorized accreditation cards. The journalists were released on Friday.

Incidentally, in an action that has received flak from opposition party leaders, both Jaleel and Nausheen have been named as accused in the FIR filed by the police. The police have insisted that they were compelled to open fire as the mob threatened to set a police station on fire. However, Jaleel's family's statement that he was not even part of the protest raises serious questions about the police action. The Muslim Central Committee and other leaders have demanded judicial inquiry into the incident, and chief minister Yediyurappa has ordered a probe.