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
An Eid That Didn't Happen, A Wedding That Got Derailed
The next day, around noon, the police arrived with 5-6 bulldozers and razed their houses to the ground.
Tazia's mother Razia Bi (40) who works with the village panchayat, said that they had not only been living in the house for around 50-60 years, but had also paid all their bills from the same place.
Unfortunately, all her documents and papers are now damaged and gone.
Concerned for her family, Razia told The Quint. "We are just lying here and there, with nothing to eat or wear. We weren't even able to save anything from the house. I have sent Tazia and my younger son elsewhere as I'm worried for their safety."
Regarding Bakrid, she remarked, "Our clothes are gone. We thought of at least offering namaz on 17 June, the day of Bakrid, but there were bulldozers at the same spots where our homes once stood. So what Eid could we think of now?"
On the other hand, Tazia stated that her wedding was due in four months but all her belongings, things and clothes she had bought and arranged in anticipation of the wedding have been destroyed.
"Whatever they found, it was from Naseer's house. And they've punished all of us for it. If you found something in our home, even if it was beef, then file a case against us, let us fight it. What was the need to demolish our homes?" she asked.
Sultana Bi (36), Razia's neighbour, also found her home demolished. Echoing Razia, she said, "They found nothing in our homes. They vandalised our belongings, opened the fridge and did not find anything. All my things, my Aadhar card, it's all under the rubble now."
Sultana said that the police even beat the men and the women, checked all their food that was cooked for Tazia's grandmother.
'Beef & Demolition — Two Different Things': SP
The FIRs have been filed against 14 accused. They contain some common lines such as: "an informant told the police that these families were storing cow meat and fat."
Superintendent of Police (Mandla) Rajat Saklecha said that "demolition was not directly linked to the crime."
"It has been going around for a while now. The first notice was sent to them in 2016. At that time, a head constable had died in the same village. Another notice was given a month ago as well," he added.
However, a day before the demolition took place, Saklecha posted on X (formerly Twitter):
"Mandla police raided Bhainswahi of Nainpur police station and registered 11 FIRs against 11 accused under the Cow Slaughter Prohibition Act, 150 live cattle were freed from the custody of the accused. The administration's bulldozer ran on the illegally constructed houses of all the 11 accused."
He told The Quint that the police confirmed at multiple levels that it was beef and in the past, there have been instances where locals gave their testimony that they had beef and were involved in such work.
"Cow remains, bones and hides were also found with them. We don't want to show images lest there is any fake news or possible lynching," he said.
Similarly, District Collector, Saloni Sidana said that the activity "cannot be seen in isolation" but along with alleged criminal activities. Here, by criminal activities, she meant the alleged slaughtering of animals banned under the Prevention of Cruelty on Animals Act.
Right before the demolition, a truck was found which had hides and skin of around 150 cows. "That cannot be for one's personal use," she said.
In addition to this, in 2016, a head constable was allegedly beaten to death when he went to give notices to the locals.
Whatever we received from their homes, it solidified the crime. They also fled the scene so the resistance from their side was also negligible. Hence, we decided that there will be no loss of life so we went ahead with the demolition.IAS Saloni Sidana, Collector
'Who Will Answer To Us Now?'
However, the people affected by the demolitions claimed that all these years, they were neither given any notices that their homes were on government land, nor were any of their family members involved in the criminal activities.
Tazia asked, "Why weren't we given a notice earlier? Why weren't we ever notified all these years that this is government land? If we had been given a notice, would we have then built these houses for ourselves?"
Meanwhile, Tazia and her neighbour Sultana Bi, also pinned the blame on a local journalist Sakir Khan. They claimed that he was the one who brought the police to their homes and told them to search their houses.
Responding to The Quint, Sakir stated, "It is sad what has happened. These cases against the locals have happened in the past as well. I did not instruct the police to raid their homes, the police already knew their names and location, I merely pointed them out to them."
Left in a lurch, the women alleged that men of the house have also been driven away by the police and are being stopped from entering the premises of their demolished homes.
Razia said that apart from them and Sultana Bi's family, others have relocated temporarily to their maternal home or somewhere else in light of the unbearable heatwave and loss of their belongings.
Interestingly, a few houses are still left on the same land which weren't targeted by the police.
"Three-to-four houses are also left on the same land, how is ours violating the law and theirs isn't? Police told us if we take help or shelter in those homes, they will demolish those houses too."
Saloni Sidana, the Collector, on the other hand said that those houses were left because the locals had assured them that they would remove it themselves while complying to the district administration.
On being asked about the people's claims that they had been living there since decades, Sidana said, "They must be living there for decades but it doesn't make them entitled to that land, if you don't have the patta, then you'll be called an encroacher."
Meanwhile, the families now find it hard to survive amidst rising temperatures and no shelter to seek protection under.
"We don't even have any clothes to wear, it's just the one pair of clothes that we're surviving with. They just left us in this intense heat. Who will answer to us now?" said Sultana Bi.
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