In yet another first in Modi's India, Muslims of Mewat anticipate Eid-ul-Adha, Bakri Eid, with trepidation and fear
Beef Hysteria by Haryana Police Leaves Muslims of Mewat Terrorised
Biriyani far from being a source of culinary joy on Bakri-Eid has in fact turned into the reason or caution, trepidation and fear. Muslims in Mewat live in fear as the Haryana police has taken over the role of cow vigilantes in a brazen targeting if the minority. Deep terror and fear stalks Mewat in Haryana, the only district where there is a sizeable Muslim community in the state. The state has mandated the police to officially go on a beef-hunt:sniff beef from the biryani being cooked for Eid in homes and at street stalls.
In organised raids that defied due process and law, the police took away 'samples' across the town, without following procedures laid down in the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gau Samvardhan Act 2015. As a result small eateries elling beef have simply shut down shop.
Media leaks and hysterical reporting that quoted the state as saying that beef had been discovered were not countered by any objctive reporting by the media. The business has stopped, with the police threatening and aggressive. As everyone in the vicinity knows, the charge of ‘beef’ is life threatening and by the time anyone proves otherwise—if at all– the vendor could be lying dead or severely injured as incidents in the recent past have shown. The Haryana police officers have been quoted in the local media as saying that now the raids will no longer be random, but will cover all biryani vendors in the area.
In the midst of this has come reports of a brutal attack on Muslims, in a village in Mewat where they were brutally beaten and killed, and the girls raped by a gang of youth. Local workers insist that at least two of the assailants were recognised as members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, with activisits naming them at a press conference held in Delhi by Anhad yesterday. This was hosted by Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar Ansari who had visited the village, and despite letters and requisitions, unable to secure justice for the traumatised family. The victims narrated their story of horror, with a simplicity that brought tears to many an eye.
Although the house was looted, the modus operandi of the assailants according to Advocate Ramzan Chaudhry suggested a planned attack. The family was mercilessly thrashed, the girls raped over and over again, and two killed. Shabnam Hashmi said that two of the accused were found to be volunteers of the RSS as per their Facebook profiles. And according to her, weere also reported to members of the Gau Raksha Samiti in the state.
The atmosphere in Mewat is not just tense, but openly communal and terrifying as the locals said. The family from the village had to come. The Haryana government appears to be following the larger agenda of driving the poorer Muslims at this stage out of business, and ensuring that their freedoms are curtailed through the threat of arrests and mob attacks. Locals share this information with trepidation, insisting they not be quoted, and pointing out that the entire community is now living in fear of its lives.
Local panchayats (meetings) have been organised where the Qureshi community in the state was told to give up the meat business. All meat, not just beef. The Muslims have been for long dependent on this business to survive, are largely landless.Attacks have been taking place consistently regarding which some key questions have been raised.
The festival of cheer Eid has turned into a nightmare for the Muslim residents of Mewat who are facing now not just the threat of mob violence, but of police wrath.
Last week a horrific case of rape was reported from Mewat.
