An award-winning journalist’s minor son stabbed while resisting mobile snatching in Batla House today, police crack the case. Read the report here:
A 12-year-old boy was stabbed in Batla House on Sunday after resisting an attempt to snatch his mobile phone. The boy’s father, Furqan Ali, a journalist, said his son had gone to a friend’s house near the cooperative bank in Batla House to share notes.
“On his way back home at 1:38 PM, my son saw a group of local boys, mostly minors, trying to snatch his phone from his pocket. When he resisted and tried to run, one of them stabbed him in the hand,” Ali said.
He said he received a frantic call from his wife urging him to come home immediately, as their son had been injured in mobile snatching incident. Nervous but determined, Ali said although he was on assignment, he cut it short and rushed home, assuring his wife that their only son would be fine.
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“Just imagine how you would feel when you get a call from your wife saying, ‘Our son is bleeding profusely after being stabbed in mobile snatching incident.’ My son is strong, and that’s why he resisted the attack,” he said.
Ali told the OT that his son is safe, with the stabbing leaving only a hand injury from the sharp object used by the attackers. He got eight stitches, said Ali. “But I was just thinking had he been hurt in the neck or chest, the whole story would have been very different,” he said.
Police responded quickly in mobile snatching incident, Ali said, and rushed his son to AIIMS, where he received immediate medical care. Within six hours, the police had apprehended the accused and resolved the case, which Ali described as commendable.
He said: “I have only one son. This incident shows the growing menace of juvenile delinquency in the city, where even innocent children face danger from rising street crimes.”
The father said they had relocated to Zakir Nagar six months ago after their daughter got admission to a Jamia school. Earlier he used to reside in Ghaziabad. He expressed shock at the boldness of the young attackers, children small in age but daring enough to use violence, even risking murder, just to snatch a phone.
The case is being probed and it is understood that mostly minors are involved in the attacking case.
Residents expressed shock over the incident. One local said the crime situation in the area is rapidly deteriorating, with snatching incidents possible at any moment. He said in Shaheen Bagh in Okhla, such incidents are common, with youths on bikes snatching phones from unsuspecting people.
In a similar case years ago took place when a Batla House girl became a victim of mobile snatching while on her way to Shaheen Bagh. Then some miscreants on a bike came from behind and snatched her phone. In the struggle that followed, she fell from her moving rickshaw and was dragged on the road, holding on to her phone for a while before finally letting go.