A man has been dragged out of his house and beaten to death by a mob near New Delhi over rumours that his family killed and ate a cow, the victim’s brother has told Al Jazeera.
Mohammed Akhlaq, 52, a resident of Bisara village in Gautam Budh Nagar, about 40km from the Indian capital, was attacked on Monday night.
He died of his injuries early on Tuesday while his 22-year-old son Mohammed Danish was admitted to a nearby hospital in a critical condition.
“My brother threw goat’s kin in the garbage dump. But some people circulated a rumour that a cow was slaughtered and an announcement was made from the local temple,” Mohammed Saifi, the victim's brother, said.
“Soon a mob of about 1,000 people, armed with lathis [baton] and swords, gathered and attacked the house of my brother.
“They did not even spare my 82-year-old mother Asgari Begum, who has suffered injuries along with Akhlaq’s wife and daughter Sajida Saifi,” he said.
The attack on Akhlaq, a Muslim, comes amid rising tensions between Hindus and religious minorities in the Uttar Pradesh state, where the incident occurred.
"Such barbaric incidents don't happen suddenly. These are well planned. Why the UP administration is failing to prevent them is a matter of grave concern. Suspects in last year's Muzaffarnagar riots have yet to be punished," said Ram Dutt Tripathi, a former journalist with BBC.
"Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav should also explain lapses of his administration in preventing such a heinous crime," Tripathi, a veteran journalist, told
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