Haryana: Lab report does not confirm beef, but will the Muslim youth be alive?
#News Bureau October 25,2024
Sabir Malik was beaten to death by a violent mob on 27 August in Badhra town of Charkhi Dadri in Haryana. The mob had falsely accused him of eating beef. Malik, a resident of Kolkata and a garbage collector for the last five years, was living with his wife, his two and a half year old daughter and his parents in a hut in Charkhi Dadri district of southern Haryana. The police recovered cooked meat from Sabir’s house and sent it to the government lab in Faridabad for testing.
The Faridabad lab has said in its report sent to the Haryana government that the meat recovered is not beef. However, Sabir’s family had already told the police that they had cooked buffalo meat i.e. bade ka meat. But at that time neither the attacking mob of Hindus nor the police were ready to accept this. Buffalo meat is consumed on a large scale by Muslim families because it is cheap. But people are being murdered in the name of calling it beef. India is number 1 in the buffalo meat business and this meat is supplied abroad from slaughterhouses here on a large scale. The central government and state governments have not imposed any ban on slaughtering or selling buffalo meat. There is a ban on beef in Haryana.
The meat recovered from Sabir’s house was tested three times. First, on the advice of a veterinary doctor, it was sent to a lab in Faridabad. After that, it was tested again in a government lab in Sunariya. For the third time, it was sent back to a government lab in Faridabad. The report from all places was that it was not beef. After receiving the third report from the government lab in Faridabad, the police have now submitted it to the court.
The Charkhi Dadri police had arrested Abhishek, Ravinder, Mohit, Kamaljeet and Sahil for Sabir’s murder. Now the situation of the case has completely changed as beef was not found.
Like other migrant families, Sabir Malik’s family from Kolkata also came in search of work and settled in the village of Badhra. They lived in huts made of bamboo sticks and plastic sheets, and earned Rs 500 per day as garbage pickers. After Sabir Malik’s murder, the family returned to their village in West Bengal. Sabir’s wife Sakina Malik said- “We went there for a better life, but that place took away my husband. I was scared for my daughter.” The West Bengal government has given Sakina a job. In fact, Mamata Banerjee had raised this matter loudly. That is why the police had already arrested the accused during the investigation.
The mob killed Sabik Malik by deceit. At first, the police were told that some Bangladeshi people live in the slums and cook and eat beef. The police called the family members to the police station for questioning. Meanwhile, “some people” went to Sabir Malik’s slum and told him that they had to sell some scrap and asked him to come to the bus stand, where they killed him.
Incidents of West Bengal Muslims being beaten up on the pretext of being Bangladeshi are becoming common. Sabir’s brother Sardar Malik told the media that “Just because we are from Bengal, it is easy to label us Bangladeshi. Because we also speak Bengali. We went there for work. How would you feel if you come to Bengal and we treat you like an outsider?”
Student Aryan Mishra was murdered in Faridabad after being mistaken for a cow smuggler. The car in which Aryan was travelling. File photo
The network of cow protectors in Haryana, who attack Muslims suspected of carrying or eating beef, came into existence after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. They have become more active in the past ten years. Recently, a Hindu youth was shot dead by alleged cow protectors in Faridabad, mistaking him to be a cow protector. Although Aryan Mishra, a 12th class student, was in the car with his friend and his mother, the cow protectors mistook him for a cow smuggler. In Faridabad, Gurgaon, Mewat, the alleged cow protectors roam around at night like this and check vehicles. They are also accused of extorting money from cattle rearers, especially those cattle rearers who buy and transport cows, buffaloes, goats from one city to another. The police later investigated the murder of Aryan Mishra and arrested the gang leader Anil Kaushik and his cow protector gang. According to media reports, after being arrested, Anil Kaushik had said that they had made a mistake.
