The police in Moradabad booked 80 people and arrested eight of them for offering chicken meat to birds. They have been charged with animal cruelty and attempt to disturb communal harmony by throwing meat in the sky to hovering kites.
All the slaughterhouses in the city, on which the birds are dependent for survival, were closed down after the U.P. government came to power in the State. Subsequently, meat shops have shut down.
On Wednesday, Iqbal Husain, a local activist and a meat trader, and his friends saw a bunch of kites hovering in the sky. Then, they bought chicken meat and offered it to the birds. For Iqbal, it was also a mark of protest against the “illogical way in which the Yogi Adityanath government had sealed slaughterhouses”.
The local police termed it a “violation of communal harmony” as the act of throwing meat in the sky offended local Hindus who stay nearby and their religious feelings on the eve of Navratri.
Iqbal was arrested and sent to judicial custody on Thursday. “The birds had gone without food since slaughterhouses of the city were shut down. So it was an act of compassion,” said Iqbal’s wife Zahida.
“Unlike what the police is saying, my husband offered chicken in a Muslim area where no one from other religious community lives. So there is no question of offending feelings.”
