Police Admits It Has No Idea Who Killed Junaid Khan, Offers 2 Lakhs

Ballabgarh: Just days after the police in Haryana said it had identified the man who stabbed 16-year-old Junaid Khan to death on a train, it has said that it was wrong, and is now offering two lakhs for any information that could lead to the killer.

The identity of the person providing the information will be kept a secret, said a spokesperson for the Haryana Railway Police to news agency PTI.

Last week, the police said that one of three men seen on a bike near the station where Junaid was thrown off the train was the alleged murderer. By then, it had arrested five people for the death of the teen, who was accused, along with his young companions, of carrying beef in their bags. A huge impediment for the police has been the lack of witnesses - despite the fact that the compartment in which Junaid was lynched was packed with people, nobody has come forth with an account of what happened.

How Junaid Khan was attacked has been pieced together on the basis of information from his brother, Haseeb, and two cousins, who were also injured.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable. It was his second warning to self-declared cow vigilantes in nearly a year. His comments came after thousands held protests in different cities against the spate of recent assaults.

Among the five people now in jail for Junaid Khan's murder is an employee of the Delhi government. 

Junaid Khan and his brothers were returning to their village on Haryana after a day-trip to Delhi to shop for Eid when a murderous mob turned on them. Haseeb has said his skull cap was pulled off his head and his beard was tugged while the crowd shouted abuses at the Muslim men in addition to yelling they were "anti-nationals" and "beef-eaters."