A strange silence prevails over the entire village of Bishada, Dadri — where Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched on September 28, 2015.

‘Akhlaq’ is like a forbidden word in Dadri — no one wants to speak about him. Villagers stare at you and ask your details if you voice his name.

As I stepped out to ask where Akhlaq had lived, three people relaxing on a ‘charpai’ stopped playing cards. One said: “It was because of him that my son spent two years in jail." He didn't want to name himself. With folded hands, one of the men said, "Please go" and "Leave us".

Barely 200 metres away from where these elderly people were relaxing, one youngster, his head covered, said, "Akhlaq lived in this lane — but I can’t take you there because none of us goes there."

Once upon a time — The Bishada village chaupal where Mohd Akhlaq once used to sit and chat with other villagers. (Photo: Author)

The Chaupal where Akhlaq spent his day

Two elderly people in their 70s asked me, "What have you come here for?" I said, “I have come to ask about Akhlaq."

Prem Kumar (70) said: “It's people like you who have made Akhlaq an angel. More than three years have gone by since he died but all of us feel that he is still alive, thanks to the media. The last time a TV team had come to this town, we chased them away — you are not a Muslim, are you?”

On seeing my ID card, they slowly started opening up about Mohammad Akhlaq. One of them said: “We had brought him to this village as the village needed an ironsmith. With time, he became a much needed person in Bishada. He was an electrician, plumber, gardener, painter — and even knew how to make ‘desi katta’ (revolver). The house where he stayed, the villagers had given it to him and his brother.”

Akhlaq would work in an ironsmith's shop during the day and pass his time sitting on the village chaupal in the evening. Villagers still say that Akhlaq was a nice man, who did all their work. “But we don’t miss him or his family. He brought grief to this village. Around 50 youth were arrested. Many youngsters had to flee their house and take refuge in the jungle for many days, till the police battalion left the village — that too, after 60 days,” said Yashpal.

The lane where villagers claim Akhlaq had thrown pieces of cow meat. (Photo: Author)

What happened on September 28, 2015?

“He had slaughtered a cow which is scared to us. The cow’s head and legs, Akhlaq had thrown on the road. The rest, he had kept in his refrigerator,” claimed one of the villagers on condition of anonymity.

A mob of 5000-6000 attacked his house at 10pm.

Dheeraj Singh (52), a neighbour, said: “The mob simply didn’t go and attack Akhlaq — first, they stood near the chaupal and contemplated what to do. After 10 minutes, the mob decided to march to his house. Then what followed, everyone knows.”

But did the mob even ask Akhlaq if he had killed a cow or not? Silence grips the villagers.

“There was nothing to ask. We found 20-25kg of meat in his house and that was enough. Had he thrown the pieces of the cow away in a nearby pond, Akhlaq would still have been alive,” added Kumar. All of them say that what took place that night was an instant action and they have no hatred for Muslims.

Akhlaq's house lies abandoned. (Photo: Author)

'No regrets whatsoever'

But none of the villagers are regretful of what took place that night in Bishada.

“He should not have done what he did — the decision which the mob took that day was right. It deserved action. No one can play with the sentiments of Hindu,” said one of the villagers. The locals say that they doubted his nationality; he had apparently been to Pakistan three to four times.

Bushes and weeds have grown inside Mohd Akhlaq's house. (Photo: Author)

Bishada says BJP hasn’t listened to them

Hindus lived in fear when Akhilesh Yadav was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said the villagers. “Azam Khan had given orders to put us behind bars. When Yogi Adityanath came to power, we had high hopes around him — we thought that now, our chief minister, our person of the same religion, is in charge. He hasn’t done anything for us though — not a single FIR has been registered in our name against Mohammad Akhlaq and his family. We have no hope with Yogi,” said Prem Kumar.

The doors have been shut — since 2015, no one has stepped inside. (Photo: Author)

Akhlaq’s house — Abandoned hopes

Akhlaq's home today has red paint coming off it and the main door, painted in red and blue, is shut, with a rusted lock upon it. On the left-hand side, one door of the house is broken, giving a free passage to anyone to step in. The two-storey house has grass growing over it, which has clearly not been cut for the last three years.

The doors of the washroom and kitchen lie shattered, while a little further inside, one can find a ‘charpai’ lying abandoned.

Along with Akhlaq’s family, his brother’s house also has locked doors. “They left within 50 days after the incident took place. The villagers didn’t ask their family to leave, they went on their own. Uttar Pradesh government helped his family immensely — with Rs 60 lakh in cash, house and licence for two revolvers,” claimed Dheeraj Singh.

A village full of shadows. And one remaining Muslim family. (Photo: Author)

The other Muslim family in Bishada

Waqakala Begum (60) lies bedridden for the last five years. She is part of Bishada's only remaining Muslim family now.

“Ever since Akhlaq's son Sartaj got a job in the Indian Air Force, Akhlaq spoke with a lot of pride. He would often come and mock me, ‘My son is in IAF, what are your sons doing (who happen to be an auto driver and home guard),” she says. On the day of the incident, Waqakala reminisced that she heard a mob saying, ‘Jai Shri Ram’. “I knew something was wrong, so I asked my sons to stay indoors. I don’t believe that Akhlaq had killed a cow, how can he do it?” she added.

This Muslim family was certainly afraid after the incident but the Bishada villagers told them, ‘You haven’t done anything wrong — there is no reason for you to leave.’

Also read: Muslim man in Assam beaten up for ‘selling beef’: Has brutal hate overtaken us completely?