Politicians’ visits stoke tension in Dadri

Aditi Tandon and Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

Bishada (Greater Noida), October 4

Six days after Mohammad Iqlakh (50) was lynched by a mob here, a sense of deep communal distrust pervades through Bishada, a nondescript village in Greater Noida's Dadri, just an hour's drive from New Delhi.

Triggered by a bloody turn of events on September 28, the day hordes of men from the dominant Thakur community killed Iqlakh and grievously injured his son Danish over alleged calf slaughter, the divide is deepening as politicians make a beeline to this otherwise sleepy hamlet.

Today, Muzaffarnagar riot accused BJP legislator Sangeet Som and BSP's senior Muslim leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui descended on Bishada to visit Thakurs and the victim's family, respectively. While Som met local people whose wards the police have rounded up for questioning, Siddiqui gave a cheque of Rs 11 lakh to Ikram, Iqlakh's wife, who is in deep shock. Neither of the leaders engaged the other community, much to the displeasure of local people who slammed politicians for communalising the death.

Most of them rued that MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi returned without hearing what the Thakurs had to say.

"Last year, a Thakur youth was killed in an incident. No one paid him anything. We are not against leaders helping Iqlakh's family. But they must remember that Thakurs and Muslims are both human," septuagenarian Shanti Devi told this correspondent a few metres from the village's gated entry that the police barricaded post-noon to prevent mediapersons' from visiting the area. The Tribune team entered Bishada as it reached there in early hours.

There were, however, no restrictions on politicians who freely moved into Bishada with their cavalcades. Angry local women came to blows with the police when Siddiqui reached there around 4 pm with his 28-SUV cavalcade that jammed the village roads for an hour.

"Politicians should leave us alone. Their visits are abetting tension. There is no Hindu-Muslim divide here. We have lived in harmony for years. But if something happened now, there must have been a reason to it. Iqlakh's family is getting all the money while our sons are being jailed," said Dhiraj Singh, whose wards Gaurav (22) and Saurabh (20) were arrested on September 29 on suspicion.

"Had my sons been involved, would they have stayed here for the police to catch them?" said Dhiraj, whose house is around 10 yards from Iqlakh's.

Sangeet Som visited Dhiranj Singh's and later declared, "This incident is a conspiracy of the ruling Samajwadi Party, which is using MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to play communal politics. Let Owaisi be warned. This is not Hyderabad. We won't tolerate this. The matter should be investigated, but all versions going out of Dadri are one-sided. A Hindu boy got hit by a police bullet in a nearby village. No one paid him anything. I urge the BJP leadership to help him." So far, the police have arrested eight boys, with many local youths absconding out of fear.

Back in Iqlakh's dilapidated house, remains of the attack are still fresh. Blood stains are visible in the room where the mob attacked the victim. "I want justice. We didn't slaughter any cow. We didn't even sacrifice a goat this year for Bakr Eid," said Ikram whose daughter and mother-in-law were in Lucknow today to meet UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav had promised the family Rs 20 lakh, but Ikram says she is yet to receive that money.

"We have lived here in harmony for three generations. But now, we feel like strangers. Our neighbours didn't visit us even once. Locals have even stopped supplying us milk and essentials," Ikram says, leaving the decision of abandoning her house of 40 years to her elder son Sartaj, a corporal in the IAF. "I will do what Sartaj says," she said.