'Bisada, the west UP village where the 50-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched on the suspicion that he had beef in his fridge, has thrown out sparks far beyond its own surroundings. Western UP has long been communally tense, but what was once limited to towns such as Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Aligarh and Muzaffarnagar has spread to its semi-urban and rural areas as cultural and material barriers erode.
'A day after a Muslim youth was beaten to death in Himachal Pradesh for allegedly smuggling cattle for slaughter, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its sister organization the Bajrang Dal are mulling a massive 'anti-cow slaughter' drive in the communally sensitive western UP districts. VHP's district president for Shamli, one of the flash points of the Muzaffarnagar riots, Subhash Malik, told TOI, "There are around 2,000 illegal slaughterhouses in Kandhla and Kairana blocks of Shamli alone. A large number of people settled here came after the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.
'Last Thursday, a mob nearly killed two Muslims in Uttar Pradesh's Karhal town. The two men, 55-year-old Mohammad Shafiq and 27-year-old Mohammad Kalam, were skinning a cow when they were accused of slaughtering the animal. Very rapidly, a mob of 1,000-1,500 people, according to police estimates, converged on the spot, a stretch of open land next to a small irrigation canal just beyond a predominantly Hindu basti. Shafiq and Kalam, who work as butchers, were stripped and beaten. A police party that attempted to control the crowd was roughed up as well.
'A riot-like situation broke out in UP's Mainpuri, about 100km from Agra, on Friday after a mob chased down and nearly lynched four men accused of killing and skinning a cow. Two of them were hospitalized in critical condition. A contingent of the PAC had to be called in after rampaging mobs set on fire more than a dozen shops. They also targeted police vehicles, two of which they gutted, and personnel, injuring 7 cops. Many local residents, too, were hurt in clashes that followed. Tear gas had to be used to disperse the arsonists.
'A Dalit man and wife were reportedly stripped by the police in Greater Noida in Gautam Budh Nagar on Thursday after they insisted on registering an FIR for alleged robbery. According to a report, Sunil Gautam was robbed by miscreants on Wednesday night near Atta in Noida. He went to Dankaur police station in Greater Noida on Thursday to register an FIR along with his wife and baby. The police, however, refused to file a complaint. The couple then staged a protest outside the police station alleging inaction on part of the men in khaki.
'An outfit floated by BJP MP Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday offered all possible help “including guns” to the Hindus of Bisada village, as it alleged that they were being hounded following the lynching of Mohammed Ikhlaq. Several members of the group, ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ on Wednesday tried entering the village but were stopped by the police in view of the prohibitory orders. “We will go and meet Hindus who are being harassed by authorities.
On the night of 28 September, in a heinous instance of hate crime Mdohammad Akhlaq a resident of Bisara village of Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh was lynched to death and his son Danish brutally assaulted by a mob of villager over a rumour that Mr. Akhlaq and his family had slaughtered a calf and consumed its meat. Just before the lynching, an announcement was made from the local temple to spread the rumour, within moments a mob constituted itself and attacked Mr. Akhlaq resulting in his lynching. Mr.
'In the Uttar Pradesh village where a mob murdered Mohammed Akhlaq for allegedly eating beef, youngsters have been avidly following the debates on cattle slaughter in Maharashtra, Kashmir and other parts of the country... Eighteen-year-old Vandana Rana is a second-year student in the Bachelors of Pharmacy course in RV Northland Institute in Dadri, about 50 kilometres from Delhi. She has read about the ban on beef in Maharashtra. As recently as last week, she watched news on TV that Kashmiris had slaughtered cows on Bakri-Eid despite a ban on beef.
"The lynching of a 50-year-old man by a mob which accused his family of consuming beef in a Dadri village has sparked outrage with opposition parties alleging that such incidents are a result of the “climate of hate” propagated under BJP to polarise people. Around 200 persons attacked the residence of Iqlakh on Monday night after rumours spread in the village that a cow has been slaughtered and beef was stored in his house, police said on Wednesday.
"Uttar Pradesh law does not criminalise meat possession. Yet, the authorities are sending meat from the Akhlaq home to a lab to be tested. There is law enforcement and then there is law enforcement when cows are involved. In Dadri, on the edge of the National Capital Region, 50-year old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by a mob on Monday night because it was rumored that his family had been eating beef. His 20-year old son, Danish, is critically injured. Reports quote the police and the district magistrate as saying that a mob gathered after 10 pm following an announcement made at a temple.
