Jharkhand: Another Muslim man lynched to death for allegedly carrying beef

Hazaribagh: An occupant of a van transporting meat was lynched not too far from Ranchi Thursday morning in a macabre display of impunity, a few hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked Mahatma Gandhi in an appeal to end such killings. Footage showed a man in his forties, wearing blue jeans and a matching shirt, sitting dazed on the ground near a torn sack from which chunks of red meat had spilled out. The van, carrying a Bengal licence plate, was in flames. What stood out was a throng, mostly made up of men in their teens or early twenties, that formed around the man. They were gawkers, not participants, taking in the sight unfolding before them in daylight in the heart of a marketplace and in the middle of everyday life. Another clip shows a bright red two-wheeler bearing two men zipping past the burning van and pieces of meat strewn around. It was 9.40am then. The easy availability of footage suggested that many were recording the scenes on their phones, too. Another day in the non-violent land the Prime Minister would speak about in less than three hours. Before that, in less than 30 minutes, the man would die, succumbing to the wounds inflicted on him by the lynching. The victim was eventually identified as Asgar Ali a.k.a. Alimuddin (42) on the basis of calls made to certain phone numbers found in a sheet of paper in his pocket. The BJP is in power in Jharkhand, where Ramgarh, 60km from the capital Ranchi, is located. Lynch mobs, driven to fury by suspicion of harm to cows or unsubstantiated claims, have been striking with chilling regularity in the state. Ali was approaching the heart of the town in a white Maruti van when it was waylaid at Bazartand, a crowded marketplace 2.5km from Ramgarh thana, by some 30 people. Since the crowd was waiting there, police assume they had information beforehand and the murder has the hallmarks of premeditation. The interceptors yanked Ali and an unidentified companion out and threw three bags of raw meat on the road. As they started beating up the two men, another occupant of the car managed to escape. The enraged assailants then pummelled Ali and set the vehicle (WB/02K-1791) on fire. Ramgarh police claimed to have reached the spot in 15 minutes with a fire tender but by then the attackers had dispersed. The police took Ali to Ramgarh Sadar Hospital where he died around 10.10am. The police have pieced together information that Ali was a resident of Manuwa village in Ramgarh and was heading to Ramgarh from Chitarpur. "Ten persons have been identified from the pictures and videos. Raids are on but no arrests have been made yet. The guilty will not be spared," Hazaribagh range DIG Bheemsen Tuti said in the evening. Ramgarh subdivisional police officer Shashi Prakash, who is heading the investigations, said: "Let vets confirm the raw meat sample." Under the Jharkhand Bovine Animal Prohibition of Slaughter Act, slaughter of cows and sale and consumption of beef are banned. Violations can attract a maximum jail term of two years - not lynching by self-styled vigilantes.