By ALIZA NOOR
On the morning of 16 June, a day before Bakrid, 11 Muslim families in Bhainswahi village of Mandla, Madhya Pradesh woke up to their houses being demolished by the local authorities. While most news outlets reported the reason being ‘suspicion of storing beef,’ the reality is more complicated.
Eighteen-year-old Tazia Qureshi’s father Asim Qureshi is one of the accused in the 11 FIRs filed in connection with the alleged cow slaughter case. Speaking to The Quint, Tazia informed us that it all started with a local named Naseer who was reportedly involved in cow slaughter and cow meat had been retrieved only from his place.
“A huge crowd of police officials arrived at 6-7 pm. There were a lot of people at home because it was my grandmother’s barsi. They entered our houses, opened the fridge, checked all the items and then took the fridge away,” she recalled.
Tazia stated that they had left to see off their relatives when the police vandalised their belongings.
They had even torn apart the copies of the Holy Quran we had at home. The locality had been emptied. The police asked us who is involved in these activities, but we told them that we were not involved. The policemen said, ‘Abhi bulldozer chalega, tab sunayi dega, jab dande padenge tab bataoge tum (When the bulldozers come, then you will hear. When you are beaten with sticks, you will start speaking).’
Tazia Qureshi, Mandla Local, alleges
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.