SHOOTOUT AT RAFI MARG ON UMAR. ASSAILANT FLEES. NOBODY HURT

Just two days before the Independence day a student leader of JNU facing charges of sedition Umar Khalid (alongwith CPI’s Kanahiya Kumar, the former JNU student’s union president ) was today fired upon by an assailant in front of IENS building where the newspaper offices are located when the former had come out of the Constitution Club for tea and snacks alongwith his three colleagues.

According to Khalid and his friends they had come to Constitution Club at Rafi Marg, New Delhi to participate in a seminar titled ” KHAUF SE AZAADI” but since the programme had not started by then, Umar Khalid alongwith his friends came out at the nearby tea stall of NDMC to have tea n snacks at around 2.10 / 2.30 afternoon.

But when they were returning back a tall healthy man, as described by his friend Lahiri grabbed him ( Umar ) from behind who tried to resist. During the physical struggle with the unknown assailant when Umar noticed a pistol in his hand he applied full strength to catch hold of his hand with pistol.

Meanwhile his friends raised an alarm and tried to over power him but the assailant was successful in losing the grip and ran away firing from the distance.

In the confusion and perhaps desperation, hurry and huff, he left the pistol on the road. There was terror, chaos and anxiety all around.

The police reached the spot and took Umar Khalid in its custody for his safety. The crime branch officials have prepared the sketch of the assailant on the basis of the description given by Khalid’s friend accompanying him at the time of the alleged attack. They have also taken the CCTV footage of the cameras fixed in the nearby locations and are trying to examine them minutely and with precision.

Umar Khalid is fully secured and unhurt. This broad day light firing and attack on a person in the heart of the city just few metres away from Parliament house has raised a question mark on the bandobast of the law enforcing agencies just two days before the independence day say the people around.

It may be recalled that cases of sedition had been registered against the two student leaders viz Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar in June 2016 on the charges of raising anti India slogans in a programme organised in JNU to oppose the hanging of Afzal Guru, the convict of the parliament attack. They are currently on bail.

However even after the lapse of two years the charge sheets have not been filed against both of them for sedition reveal sources. Just a few metres away another function of the ruling party was being held in which Ms Meenakshi Lekhi, MP was the chief guest.