A 23-year-old man from Telangana, is in critical condition after being shot by an unidentified person in California. The family is in a state of shock while the mother has still not been informed.
According to his relative, Mubeen, who used to work in a departmental store there, was shot twice in the stomach by an unidentified man on the evening of June 4 in the store.
Soon after the incident came to light, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called for a report from the Indian Embassy in the US.
“We got the news two days after the incident. We have not informed his mother, she won’t be able to take it. Though she is suspecting that we have been hiding something, we are waiting to get more information on his health,” Mufti Aslam, uncle of Mubeen told The News Minute.
Aslam also informed that his friends did not inform the family immediately. The family came to know on Thursday, almost a week after the incident.
“He was shot, so his friends were scared to tell the family, as to how will we all react,” says Aslam.
The family said that some men went to the store posing as customers and got into an argument with Mubeen before firing at him.
An injured Mubeen was rushed to a California hospital, where he underwent surgery.
My brother who lives in Chicago, immediately reached the hospital where he was admitted. However, the doctors and police are not giving much information about what happened. They are saying that as it is a criminal case, they cannot reveal much,” adds Aslam.
Mubeen Ahmed, a resident of Sangareddy district in Telangana, had gone to California, USA in February 2015 to pursue his Masters in Engineering.
Before he moved there, Mubeen had done his B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Hyderabad.
The Telangana government is arranging for passports for Mubeen's family members to enable them to fly to the US.
“We might have to tell my sister, as people are now calling us frequently and she has become restless. Mubeen used to call his parents every day. Now that he is not calling, this has increased my sister’s impatience. We hope he gets fine,” says Aslam.
Mujeeb Ahmed, father of the victim, works as an Indian Air Force employee and is reportedly making arrangements to leave for the US.
According to Hindustan Times, Sangareddy MLA Chinta Prabhakar, has alerted Telangana irrigation minister T Harish Rao to make visa arrangements for Mujeeb, after the family contacted the MLA.
The news has come as a shock for the family, Aslam adds, as Mubeen was a calm and sensible person who never picked a fight with anyone. However, a few recent reports of deaths of Indians in the US in apparent hate crimes, had kept the family on tenterhooks.
“Initially we thought of US as a safe place. However, some of the news did scare us, but he always assured us that he is fine. This is a shocking news for us, we do not know how to deal with it. He is on ventilator support and his condition is critical, that is all we know,” he says.