In Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, on Monday night, a mob from the village entered into 50-year old Muslim man’s house, dragged him to outside and beat him to death. His son was also beaten up and he is critically injured. This happened after there were rumors in the village that a cow had been killed and beef was being consumed in this house.

Mohammad Ikhlaq and his 22-year-old son were dragged from their house by around 100 villagers in Uttar Pradesh and beaten with bricks. Ikhlaq’s son is critical and was in the hospital right now. The mob even allegedly attacked his wife and 70-year-old mother. His older son Mohammad Sartaj, 24, is an engineer with the Air Force.

A calf went missing on the 16th of September whose body parts were found near Akhlaq’s house and it was claimed that Akhlaq was seen throwing a bag which contained meat. The villagers alleged that meat in the bag was of the missing calf and from there, the rumor began that Mohammad Akhlaq and his family was consuming cow meat. Ikhlaq’s family are said to be one of only two Muslim families in the area.

Sajida, Ikhlaq’s daughter says, “The incident took place around between 10-10.30 pm Monday. A few minutes before they reached the house, there was a temple announcement alleging we had killed a cow. We did not know what the announcement was about. Before the announcement was finished, they reached our house, accused us of keeping cow meat, broke down our doors and started beating my father and brother.”

According to Sajida, they only had mutton in their fridge – a gift from relatives on Eid. “There was some mutton in the fridge which was taken away yesterday. They thought it was beef. The police have taken it for examination. If the results prove that it was not beef, will they bring back my dead father?” Sajda asks.

6 people from the village have been arrested so far, the FIR names 4 others and the police were on the lookout for them. This heinous act of violence has been slammed by the social media and there is a wave of tweets condemning the incident.

One person killed on beef rumours. Am numbed after hearing that. What is happening to the society?

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) September 30, 2015

So is this is our nationalism& our cultural values that we are so proud of? Kill an Air Force personnel’s father for beef-eating? .

— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 30, 2015

What is happening to my country. People are getting beaten to death by a mob for allegedly eating beef? Stop this world, I wanna get off.

— MissMalini (@MissMalini) September 30, 2015

WTF do you mean by sending meat for forensics. If it’s beef, would you justify the lynching? If it isn’t, would it bring the dead man back?

— Roflindian 2.0 (@Roflindian) September 30, 2015

Ponder Lynch mob of 100 can be roused On mere suspicion of beef eating And can kill And police will investigate Whether meat was beef or not

— Ajit Ranade (@ajit_ranade) September 30, 2015

Whether it was beef,mutton,chicken,roti or http://t.co/VXoiPrpMxB does it matter?Fact is a man lost his life.Its a bigger question for INDIA

— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) October 1, 2015

I just ate beef. Come and murder me.

— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) October 1, 2015

Thankfully they only found water on Mars. If they had found beef, we’d have to kill all the Martians.

— Shirish Kunder (@ShirishKunder) October 1, 2015

Ironically, India is the world’s no.1 exporter of beef. So clearly, cattle is still being slaughtered. So are human beings. 🙁

— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) October 1, 2015