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Jaipur: On the morning of September 24, 40-year-old Saikun Khan – a resident of Barawas village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district – told his son that he was going to the market to buy a new tyre for his motorcycle, and will be back soon to tend the onion crops he had sown in their field. 

Hours later, Saikun – a father of two daughters and a son – was dead, his head crushed with a stone just outside the Baroda Meo police station allegedly by a man who was later arrested by the police.

“We don’t know why my brother was killed. He didn’t have any enmity with anyone. His only crime was that he sported a beard and wore a skullcap. We suspect he was killed because it was evident from his attire that he was a Muslim. He was brutally killed outside the police station and yet not a single policeman came to save him,” says Irshad Khan, Saikun’s younger brother, his voice breaking.

Family members say that Saikun had gone to the market at Baroda Meo – around ten kilometres from their village – with another fellow villager on the latter’s motorcycle to buy a tyre for his own two-wheeler.

“The other person had some work in Baroda Meo, so my son dropped him off and was going to buy some other household item. When he was right in front of the Baroda Meo police station’s gate, a man suddenly hit Saikun on his head with a heavy stone. My son fell down and his legs were........

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