Twenty-one-year-old Sharif Ahmed had big dreams. The young man from Manipur’s largest Muslim settlement of Lilong in Thoubal district wanted to appear for the civil services exam and become an IAS officer to help his community. It’s a dream most young people in this minority community have, but few achieve.
Ahmed’s family though will never find out how he would have fared. A student of the masters course in Geography at Guwahati’s Cotton College, Ahmed was one of the four youth who died after being thrown out of a Bangalore-Guwahati special train following a fight with fellow passengers near New Jalpaiguri on Saturday.
The train was one of the many that had been scheduled to bring home people from the Northeast who were fleeing Karnataka’s capital following rumours that they would be attacked by Muslims in retaliation for the clashes between Bodos and migrant Muslims in Assam.
Those who knew Ahmed in Lilong said he was one of the brighter students in his village and the youngest and brightest among the seven siblings in his family. He had stood third in his graduation from Manipur University and wanted to study more to pursue his ambition. Overshadowed by the politics between the tribal Nagas and Kukis and the dominant Meitei Hindu community in the state, the Pangal Meiteis, as the Muslims in Manipur are called, are known to consider education as their only hope.
“He left home on August 14 to join college. He stayed a night in Dimapur, Nagaland. I last talked to him on the evening of the 17th when I told him that he had to come for Eid. He agreed,” said Ahmed’s father Alhaaz Zeinulabuddin, a retired political science teacher. “On the 19th night I received news from the Lilong police station that my son had died. He was my biggest hope. He was the hope of the community. What am I supposed to do now?”
Ahmed’s relatives and friends said that it is a mystery to them how Ahmed was on a train from Bangalore to Guwahati when he was supposed to be in Guwahati and come to Lilong for Eid. “This is the second time Sharif had gone to Guwahati, the first time was for his admission. He had no friends there. He had not traveled to Bangalore as many are saying. Then how is it that he was found pushed off a train in Jalpaiguri? How could this happen?” asked his cousin Amjad Khan.
Top sources in the Manipur government, however, said that their inquiries had found Ahmed had gone to Bangalore even though they are yet to ascertain the reason for the trip. He was returning with the rest of the people from the Northeast who were fleeing the city, they said.
Ahmed’s body was brought to Imphal on Tuesday under tight security. Although the entire Lilong and men from surrounding villages arrived at Zeinulabuddin’s home to show their solidarity, the immediate family did not receive Ahmed’s body until the state government assured them of compensation and a thorough probe into the death.
While Ahmed’s death has shocked Lilong, some local Muslim leaders are wondering why they have been dragged into the conflict in Assam. “We are very confused. This entire situation with the Muslims and Bodos in Assam is horrible. We consider ourselves more Manipuri than Muslims. Why are they dragging us into this? We don’t want to be a part of this issue. We don’t want our lives disrupted,” said All Manipur Muslims Organisation Coordination Committee member Saeed Rahimuddin.
State government officials said that they were on alert and security had been stepped up to prevent any spillover of the trouble in Assam.
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