In an incident of road rage in Aligarh on Monday, May 8, class 5 student Anam Aslam, who is 13-years-old, was shot in the head by a pair of goons. The bullet was aimed at the van driver when it missed its target and hit the student.
The assault is said to have taken place because of a petty traffic issue when two men on their motorbike got into a fight with the driver of the car and pulled out their firearms. That is when one stray bullet hit Anam above the eyebrow. She was rushed to JNMC (Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU). According to the SSP of Aligarh, “it appears to be an incident of road rage”. However, the investigation is still going on. Although the matter isn’t clear yet and the evidence and facts have not been released by the concerned officials, this is currently the most widely believed account of the dreadful incident.
On May 9, she was referred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where her condition was declared critical as the bullet is said to have stuck in her brain. A sum of ₹1.15 lakh has been collected and donated for her treatment by the Aligarh fraternity, and students went to the hospital to donate blood and support her family.
Similar incidents, where firearms were pulled out and used for petty issues have taken place in Aligarh before this. In late 2015, Alamgir, a bachelor student of social work was shot in the middle of the campus on a busy day.
Although there is no information about the goons who shot Anam, the matter needs to be looked at as a critical one and dealt with as a part of the university’s loopholes. The gun problem in and around the campus has to be dealt with strictly and seriously by the University administration to prevent such incidents from happening again. Firearms attained illegally and armed goons in and around the university pose a serious problem to the university’s peace and we, the student fraternity and as a strong campus need to start working towards complete disarmament.