Indian police charge 15 over mob killing of Muslim man

Indian police have charged 15 suspects over the mob killing of a Muslim man severely beaten by purported Hindu extremists over rumors that his family had eaten beef.

Daljeet Chaudhary, additional director general of police in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, confirmed that the law enforcement agencies had charged major suspects involved in the assassination.

"We have filed a charge sheet against 15 persons... it is a case of murder," media outlets quoted Chaudhary as saying.

Chaudhary added that the group also included a 17-year-old juvenile.

Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged from his house in the village of Bisada in Uttar Pradesh and beaten to death by about 100 people in late September. Akhlaq’s 22-year-old son was also seriously injured in the attack.

The Muslim man was killed over rumors that he had eaten beef, a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation.

Rumors sparked after a calf was reported missing across the troubled region. Soon after, a temple made an announcement via loudspeaker that the family members had consumed beef and within minutes the mob tore through Akhlaq’s home before beating him to death.

The Muslim family has repeatedly maintained they had mutton in the fridge and not beef.

In mid-October, a mob in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh beat a Muslim man to death and injured four others after accusing them of smuggling cows to be slaughtered for beef. Following the attack, some 500 people armed with iron rods and bamboo sticks set fire to dozens of shops belonging to Muslims in the region. 

Several incidents of anti-Muslim violence have fueled concerns as religious intolerance is growing under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The premier has been urged to speak out on the case after colleagues in his party came under increasing pressure for appearing to downplay the crime. Modi has fallen short of condemning the violence against Muslim and some other religious communities.

However, the Indian prime minister has recently described the lynching as "unfortunate" and appealed for religious unity, saying the nation would only prosper "when Hindus and Muslims unite and fight" against poverty.

Slaughtering cows is banned in many states of India, where the majority of the population is Hindu.

In March, the state of Maharashtra toughened its ban to make even possessing beef illegal. The move has been seen by religious minorities as a sign of the growing power of hardline Hindus.

India is home to a large Muslim population, and a sizeable Christian and Buddhist minorities.

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