Click to play videoBhagalpur: On June 12, almost 17 years after the riots in Bhagalpur, the Centre announced a Rs 29.81-crore package for the victims.
However, one little boy who suffered a head injury, witnessed the riots and became mentally unstable is not on the official list of victims.
Arif has spent the last 17 years in chains inside a dingy room. His family and friends in Nath Nagar say life has been like this for him ever since a stone thrown by a miscreant hit him on the head during the Bhagalpur riots of 1989.
"Arif has become a young man. He is now 25-26 year old. But he is still preoccupied with the riots. He has spent the last 18 years in chains," Rehan Akhtar, Arif's neighbour, says.
His neighbours remember Arif as a sprightly young boy who used to help his family earn a living. But the head injury and the violence he witnessed as a child changed him forever.
He now often goes berserk on seeing people.
"He has been like this for the past many years. We took him to many doctors and gave him medicines but it was of no use. He has been chained for the past many, many years. He can't earn his living and has grown in chains," his mother Jilekha Begum says.
Arif's family has been bearing his medical expenses since the riots took place.
He does not figure in the list of riot victims. So even now, when the Centre has announced a fresh package for the riot victims, he will not get any help from the government, assurances apart.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says, "We are happy that Bhagalpur riot victims are getting compensation. We are helping them get justice,"
In the October 1989 riots 844 people were killed but for survivors like Arif it is a horror-revisited everyday.
(With inputs from Surendra Singh)
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