Dadri Lynching Pre-Planned: National Commission for Minorities

Dadri lynching may have involved “pre-meditated planning”, says a report by the National Commission for Minorities.

Relatives of Mohammad Akhlaq mourn after he was killed by a mob in Dadri, UP. (Photo: Reuters)

A member of the National Commission for Minorities speaking to Times Now has said that their findings suggest that the Dadri lynching may have involved “pre-meditated planning” and termed “disturbing” controversial statements by politicians to “make capital out of such outrages”.

She added that evidence suggests that workers of the Hindu Yuva Vahini reached Dadri overnight and may have been involved.

Times Now also reported that there are clear indications that the incident was a mob murder.

In an apparent criticism of BJP leaders who made controversial comments after visiting Bishada village, where 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaqq was lynched over a rumour that he had eaten and stored beef, NCM said such statements further “vitiate” the relations between different communities.

These should be stopped at all cost or “things will go out of hand”, added NCM, which had a three-member team headed by its chairperson Naseem Ahmad making a visit to Bishada village.

The team feels that a crowd of large numbers appearing within minutes of an announcement from temple’s loudspeaker and at a time when most villagers claimed they were asleep seems to point to some pre-meditated planning.

National Commission for Minorities report

The facts as reported to the NCM team suggests that the whole episode was the result of planning in which a sacred place like temple was used for exhorting people of one community to attack a hapless family.

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NCM said it will be “quite an understatement” to say that the killing was merely an accident “as has been claimed even by some persons in authority” – a clear reference to a statement by Union Minister Mahesh Sharma and some other BJP leaders.

It added that what is more disturbing is that responsible persons converge at the place of any such incident and make irresponsible statements that further vitiates relations between communities.

“All the political establishments need to counsel their cadres and sympathisers to desist from making irresponsible statements and making capital out of such outrages,” it said. “The malaise of moral policing” is spreading fast, especially in western UP, it said while seeking vigilance of and curbs on the use of social media, claiming it was being extensively used to flare up communal passions.

(With inputs from PTI)