NEW DELHI: Western Uttar Pradesh, the notorious hunting ground for communally polarised votes, which helped Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come to power last year, has been tense again since Monday after a Muslim man was lynched by a rightwing Hindu mob on the outskirts of Delhi for allegedly eating beef.

“There was an announcement from the Shiv Mandir saying we had slaughtered a cow and were eating beef since Eid (on Friday) — that was all it took,” said Asghari Begum, whose 50-year old son Mohammed Akhlaq was beaten to death on Monday.

She also told The Hindu that she had “never even seen beef” in her lifetime.

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a probe into the incident, reports said, adding that initial findings suggested that the rumours were false.

Massive police and paramilitary deployment helped maintain an uneasy calm at Bishara two days after the criminal act.

Asghari Begum said Hindu residents of her village, led to “mistakenly” believe that there was beef in her fridge, raided and plundered her home around 10:30pm on Monday.

“Look at what they did to my boy and grandson after that,” she said unfolding a bloodied shirt as she did so.

“They didn’t bother to check what kind of meat it was. They began hitting us with bricks, stones after breaking down the door. They didn’t even spare me or the rest of the women in my family”.

The Hindu quoted Vandana whose brothers are among the six to have been arrested so far, as saying she was “sad” at how the episode unfolded. “But all said and done, I’m sure no one will dare to eat beef in this village ever again,” she added.

On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) former MLA from the area, Nawab Singh Nagar, blamed the victim’s family for the violence. After visiting the area he regretted the incident but defended the accused.

“The incident is truly unfortunate but, if the allegation that the accused ate beef is true, the family simply brought what happened to it upon itself,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.

“The boys caught are probably innocent and have been framed by the local police who are in cahoots with beef smugglers,” he added.

Meanwhile, according to Tehelka magazine, the Justice Sahai Commission, appointed to investigate into the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, submitted its report to UP Governor Ram Naik on Sept 23.

Although the contents of the report have not been made public, sources said that it had held the state’s ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party politicians responsible for fuelling the fire that burnt Muzaffarnagar and five other west UP districts in September 2013.

Published in Dawn October 1st, 2015

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