Video sparks fear: I take the same lane every day

A Grab from the purported video of the assault.

Several days have passed since Ahmad was tied to a pole and beaten up by a mob. A stone’s throw away from the spot, another Nigerian student, who shares the same name, passed the pole several times — oblivious to what transpired around it. “I would walk through the same lane and smile at the people; they would smile back,” Ahmad said.

On Monday, Ahmad and three fellow Nigerians sat inside their dingy two-room house and saw the video of the attack on their laptop. “I never thought this would happen in this locality,” Ahmad said.

The four said they have been living here for more than two years, and have never witnessed such an incident. “Many Muslims live here. Locals sometimes invite us to their weddings and other functions. They know us by our faces,” said Hafeez, who shifted here from Munirka more than three years ago.

Aminu Halilu, who saw the video on YouTube, said, “Maybe he was punished for doing something wrong. We are students and have proper police verification. We pay rent on time and share a good relationship with our landlord. Everything is chill.”

But Ahmad said he fears that one day, he too could be “branded a thief by mistake”. “People in this locality know us by face. But what if we go to another locality and are misunderstood?” he said.