Mutton found in lynched man’s fridge

Top government official said lab report confirmed that the meat in Akhlaq’s fridge was mutton

Dadri, Uttar Pradesh Over 10 days after a mob lynched a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh apparently for slaughtering cattle, forensic tests of the meat have shown that it was mutton, not beef.

Residents of the Bisara village in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh had attacked the family of Muhammad Akhlaq, 50, on September 28. The mob beat Akhlaq to death and severely injured his 22-year old son Danish after rumours had spread that they had slaughtered cows and were consuming beef.

Policemen, who had confiscated meat from Akhlaq’s house after the incident, had sent samples to a vet for preliminary tests and to a forensic lab in Mathura. The vet had reported that the meat was mutton.

A top government official on Friday said that report from the lab in Mathura also confirmed that the meat in Akhlaq’s fridge was mutton, Times of India reported.

The official added that had the meat not been tested, the opposition would have alleged that the government was hiding facts.

Meanwhile, a day after an Indian Kashmir states assembly member was assaulted by fellow MPs, he staged a sit-in protest in Srinagar on Friday, CNN-IBN reported.

Abdul Rashid Shiekh had been assaulted in the assembly by nearly a dozen MPs belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday for serving beef.

On Friday, Rashid and his supporters camped outside the assembly, vowing to stay there till the Himalayan state’s chief minister explained why a bill against a controversial ban on beef was not being allowed in the assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.