LUCKNOW: Tension gripped Behta village under Bindki police station limits in Fatehpur district when a jute sac allegedly full of beef was spotted near a water body on Tuesday morning. The information about the recovery of sac spread like a wild fire in the area and residents from a number of adjoining villages, infuriated over the incident, gathered at the site in protest.
Tension increased as the villagers, in huge number, indulged in vandalism in a nearby small madarsa and broke its wall after the alleged recovery of beef from one of the two rooms of the institution. This made people from other community come out to in response to the protests.
On getting the information about the tension, Fatehpur DM Sanjeev Singh and SP Ramesh accompanied by the whole battery of officials including SDM Vijay Shankar Tiwari, ASP Pooja Yadav, CO Abhishek Tiwari, rushed to the village with a huge contingent of police and pacified the agitated villagers by talking to people from both communities. Later, the cops registered a case of cow slaughter against absconding Mushtak and Munnu Shah of the same village.
However, speaking to TNIE, Fatehpur DM denied the incident taking any communal colour in the village. “There was no communal tension in the village as such for no clash took place between the two communities,” he said though he accepted the recovery of meat.
In fact, trouble started when an incident of cow slaughter was reported in Behta village on Monday evening and after sensing the gravity of situation, police was deputed in the village. Next morning, when some village women went to the pond, they spotted a jute sac stuffed with beef. They informed the police who recovered the sac.
Subsequently, villagers from Urdauli, Shahbajpur, Khanjahalpur, Faridpur, Dhanemau and Gauri gathered in Behta within no time and they started protests demanding immediate arrest of those who were allegedly involved in cow slaughter. While claiming that the beef was kept in nearby madarsa, the mob started vandalising it and broke its wall. Some of the trouble makers even tried to set the madarsa on fire.
As per the local sources, the mob got enraged after the alleged recovery of beef from inside the madarsa. However, with the intervention of the senior officials of district and police administration, the situation was brought under control.
“Situation is completely under control and no communal tension could set in the village. We have deployed enough force to quell any further trouble,” said the DM. Meanwhile, the district police were conducting raids to nab the two absconding persons booked on charges of cow slaughter.