In a chilling development, a madrasa student was killed in the heart of India’s national capital for playing in a park outside the religious institution. 8-year-old Mohammad Azeem was killed in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar area.
According to police, the 8-year-old boy hailed from Mewat in Haryana and was playing in the park adjacent to his madrasa. However, four boys arrived and directed Azeem and his friends to play somewhere else. When Azeem refused, he was violently attacked the four boys.
He fell on the ground and became unconscious. This prompted his friends to rush to the madrasa and inform the clerics, who were quick to take Azeem to a local private hospital, where he was declared dead on Thursday.
The madrasa, where little Azeem studied is identified as Darul Uloom Faridiya and is based in Begumpur village near Malviya Nagar.
“The local boys insisted on playing since they claimed there was no other empty place nearby. A fight broke out in which the student sustained an internal injury on his head” PTI quoted Vijay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South).
Police, according to a report by Indian Express, said the situation in the area has always been tense as the land is disputed and the matter is pending in court. The madrasa claims the plot as its own, while residents of a JJ cluster in the vicinity believe it is public land.
The police have taken custody of four boys, all minor, and registered a case under ‘under appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code.’ They’ve informed the parents of Azeem. An investigation is also underway even as the cops await the post-mortem report.