RAMPUR: Tanzeem Fatima, the wife of veteran Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, has returned a cow gifted to them by a revered seer over mob lynching fears in the aftermath of the recent killing of a Muslim man in Rajasthan’s Alwar over suspicion of cow smuggling.
Speaking to Zee Media, Rajya Sabha MP Tazeem Fatima said, ”With deep pain, we have returned a beautiful cow gifted to us by a seer over fears that someone might kill the animal and put the blame on us.”
It was a painful decision for Khan family to return the cow, she stressed.
The cow was gifted to the Khans by Adhokshjanand Maharaj, the Shankaracharya of the Govardhan Peeth.
The firebrand SP leader’s politician wife also blamed the present NDA regime for unleashing a reign of terror in the country during past four years.
“Past four years of BJP rule has unleashed a reign of terror, especially against the members of the minority community,” she said.
Rajya Sabha MP Tanzeem Fatima had sometimes back urged people to focus on the issue of cow protection, Ganga pollution and Bhagwat Gita. Fatima also announced that she will contribute Rs 25 lakh for the upkeep of a gaushala (cow shelter home) in Goverdhan under Mathura district.
However, Fatima today said that she will never return to the gaushala again.
In view of intense political bickering over the Alwar lynching incident, Azam Khan had appealed to the members of his community to stay away from the cow for their own safety.
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Remarks from the Samajwadi Party leader – a prominent Muslim face of the party – came days after a 28-year-old man identified as Rakbar Khan aka Akbar was allegedly beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan’s Alwar district in the intervening night of July 20-21.
The post-mortem report said that Khan died of “shock as a result of ante-mortem (before death) injuries sustained over the body.”
The autopsy further stated that the 28-year-old victim Rakbar Khan Aka Akbar suffered 13 injuries in total, including eight bruises, two abrasions, a laceration, a fracture in the wrist and another in left femur.
The Alwar Police has also come under attack for wasting several hours in rushing the victim to a nearby hospital, which was just 6-km away from the incident site.
Last year in April, a 50-year-old Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by cow vigilantes in the same district triggering a national outrage.
Condemning the growing incidents of mob lynching across the country, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on Tuesday said that the Centre is deeply concerned and even ready to make a new law over the issue.
As per the figures provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 45 people were killed in 40 different cases of mob lynching across nine states between 2014 and 3 March this year.
(With ANI inputs)