.jpeg "The family of Ikhlaq, who was beaten to death by a mob, at Bishada in Dadri. (Photo: PTI/File).")
Dadri, (Greater Noida): Villages surrounding Bishada in Dadri have been put on high alert as the residents of these areas have begun organising panchayats demanding the registration of a case against the family of 50-year-old Mohammad Ikhlaq for alleged cow slaughter and beef consumption.
The villages under Dadri tehsil put on alert include Ucha Hamirpur, Samana, Sapnawat, Patadi, Rasoolpur and Chithera. Amidst threats of a mahapanchayat, Jaan Mohammad, the brother of Mohammad Ikhlaq who was lynched nine months ago over beef-eating rumours, appealed for peace. “With folded hands I appeal for calm. Don’t bury your brotherhood. Even if one drop of blood is shed, it will give me more pain than my brother’s murder,” he told a TV channel. Eighteen people were arrested following the lynching, including two juveniles one of whom is out on bail.
Fear stalks the Muslim families in Bishada. Recalling the peace and harmony that once existed here, Muslim housewife Rukhsana wanted to know “why things cannot be the same again”.
Local BJP leader Sanjay Rana, whose son Vishal is one of the prime accused in the lynching, was in no mood to “spare those who slaughter cows”. He has demanded that cases be registered against Ikhlaq’s family members and that the compensation given to his family be “taken back”. The state government had given the brothers LIG flats in Greater Noida as compensation and Ikhlaq’s sons and wife were given '50 lakh and an LIG flat in Greater Noida. Ikhlaq’s family shifted out of Bishada a week after the incident in September 2015.
Mr Sanjay Rana and his namesake, the panchayat chief at Bishada, told this newspaper there was tremendous pressure to “call a mahapanchayat”.
