3 Muslim men lynched in 16 days; response muted

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: As the din of the Lok Sabha polls dies down, the lynching of three Muslim men over cattle in a span of 16 days has flown under the radar.

This is a far cry from the national outrage seen when Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched in his home in Dadri town of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh in September 2015. However, with every lynching, people appear to have grown desensitized.

The three recent killings happened in two separate incidents. The first was the murder of Mishri Khan Jume Khan Baloch, who was waylaid by “gau rakshaks” (cow protectors) allegedly associated with the Bajrang Dal in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district on May 23.

The other two deaths were those of Chand Miyan (23) and Guddu Khan (35) who were killed in Raipur district in Chhattisgarh on June 8 while their associate Saddam Qureshi (23) suffered serious injuries.

Killed over buffaloes

Mishri Khan was transporting two buffaloes for his sister after buying them from a market in Banaskantha district on May 23.

Notably, only cows are regarded as sacred by many Hindus. Mishri was accompanied by his friend Hussain Khan on the trip when he was allegedly intercepted by accused persons Akherajsinh Parbatsinh Vaghela, Nikulsinh, Jagatsinh, Pravinsinh and Hamirbhai Thakor.

Hussain told mediapersons = their pick-up van’s tyre was punctured, following which Mishri, who was driving, was set upon by the mob. Hussain said that he managed to escape. The eyewitness said that he saw Mishri being beaten with iron rods.

Mishri’s kin said that the deceased and Hussain had been harassed by the same mob in July 2023, which had made the duo file a police complaint. The accused were reportedly angry about this.

The incident came to light because Mishri’s friend Fazal Khan shot a video of the scene of crime, fearing it would be tampered with. The deceased was the lone breadwinner of the family and is survived by a visuallyimpaired wife and four children.

Cops ignore communal angle

However, the First Information Report (FIR) ignores the communal angle, which had distressed the kin of the deceased. Local Superintendent of Police (SP) Akshayraj Makwana has said that the killing could be because of personal enmity.

In April, the Supreme Court had heard a petition that claimed cops registered cases of lynching as altercations or accidents.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his May campaign in Gujarat had claimed that if you had two buffaloes, Congress would snatch one.

UP victims die in Chhattisgarh

Cousins from Saharanpur district in UP Chand Miyan and Guddu Khan were accompanied by Saddam Qureshi hails from Shamli district in the same state when they were allegedly set upon by vigilantes in Raipur district around 2 am on June 8.

They had purchased and loaded up bovines from Mahasamund district in Chhattisgarh and were heading to a cattle market in neighbouring Odisha. Relatives of Chand said he had called them in the wee hours of June 8, narrating that he was surrounded by a mob.

A similar call to a friend was made by Saddam. The FIR mentions these calls wherein the victims are heard begging for help. However, local police insists they haven’t ascertained it was a lynching. This is despite sharp nails being found on the bridge, presumably to puncture the truck of the victims.

Cops found the victims under a 30-foot bridge on the Mahanadi River. Chand was already dead while Guddu and Saddam were critically injured and shifted to a hospital in Mahasamund town.

Guddu succumbed to his injuries while Saddam is recovering. The autopsies of the deceased are awaited to narrow down the cause of death.