Page 42 - 30APR2019E

Man beaten up, ‘forced to

eat pork’ for selling beef

A Victim’s brother claims that sale of meat of any kind has never
Muslim man was allegedly
beaten up and forced to eat
pork by a group of people been an issue in the bi-weekly market of Madhupur, reports
for allegedly selling beef tehelka bureau
in Assam. Shaukat Ali, 48,
was assaulted at the Madhupur weekly had beef on the menu for decades tion had summoned leaders of local
market in Biswanath district on April 7. while letting customers bring home- organisations, including the All Assam
He was hospitalised. cooked meat too. “No one told us Minority Students’ Union, for a meet-
A case was registered with the we could not sell meat. They could ing toward normalising the situation.
Biswanath Chariali police station on have served a notice instead of “We have made it clear peace must be
the complaint of the victim’s brother attacking my brother, and could have maintained under any circumstances
Sahabuddin Ali. Biswanath Chariali, taken action officially if we did not with the Lok Sabha election a few days
headquarters of Biswanath district, is comply,” he reportedly said, adding that
about 240 km north-east of Guwahati. the mob mostly comprised people from
A video of the incident went viral adjoining areas.
on the social media. It showed a dazed In his complaint, Sahabuddin re-
Ali surrounded by a crowd demanding portedly said some members of the
to know where he had come from and mob threatened to force-feed pork
whether his name figured in the Na-
tional Register of Citizens that intends
to weed out illegal migrants. A video of the
Sahabuddin said sale of meat of any incident went viral
kind was never an issue in the bi-week-
ly market of Madhupur. “Our father on the social media,
started running a rice-meal eatery at showing a dazed
the Madhupur market every Thursday
and Sunday more than 40 years ago. I Ali surrounded by a
took over from him and later let my crowd demanding
younger brother Shaukat Ali ran it,” said
Sahabuddin. to know whether his
The district authorities, he was quot-
ed as saying by a media outlet, assured name figured in the
him that action would be taken within controversial NRC
24 hours. On the night of April 8, the
police arrested two people identified
from the video of the assault that was to his brother, who stays in the town
uploaded on social media. On April 7, behind the local police station.
the day of the assault, the police picked District Deputy Commissioner
up five people, including two market Pabitra Ram Khaund said the authori-
committee leaders, in a bid to disperse ties swung into action soon after the
a mob. They were let go after signing a complaint was lodged and arrested
good behaviour bond under section 107 two people connected with the assault.
of Code of Criminal Procedure. “We took the victim to the hospital and
Sahabuddin, who lives in Kalakati provided treatment. He is now out of
village 15 km from Biswanath Cha- danger.”
riali, admitted that the eatery has Khaund said the district administra-

Tehelka / 30 april 2019 42 www.Tehelka.com