Dadri villagers demand action

Tension returned to Bishada village in Dadri on Monday, after nine months of peace, as the family members of those accused of the Dadri lynching and residents defied prohibitory orders and held a panchayat to demand that an FIR be lodged against victim Mohammed Ikhlaq’s family for cow slaughter.

The demand comes after a lab report on May 31 “established” that the meat found in the Dadri lynching victim’s house was that of a “cow or its progeny”. Since the report became public, the villagers, supported by some local leaders, had been pushing for a “mahapanchayat” and Dadri had been put on high alert.

Around 300 villagers of Bishada attended the panchayat at the temple in the centre of the village on Monday. It is the same temple from where the announcement on the night of September 28, 2015, had led to people gathering outside Ikhlaq’s house “to teach him a lesson” for allegedly storing cow meat in his house. Mohammed Ikhlaq was killed that night. In Monday’s meeting, senior villagers asked residents to give the district administration and police an ultimatum that they have 20 days to act on their demands, and, if the deadline was not met, they would call a “mahapanchayat” to decide their course of action.

“We met the SSP and demanded the registering of an FIR against the family of Ikhlaq,” said Sanjay Rana, father of Dadri lynching key accused Vishal.