Lucknow: Danish Akhlaq, survivor of September 28 Dadri lynching incident, has said that he would never go back home after what happened to him and his father.
Speaking to an English News Channel, Danish said "We were beaten that day for no fault of ours. We were attacked without any reason. If you stay in a village where a very few of your own community live, and then you are beaten without any reason, can you go back? I don't ever want to go back."
The 22 year old also said that he knew most of the attackers since childhood but that did not stop them from telling him: “Danish, today you are dead."
Narrating the horror, Danish said that some of the attackers were those with whome he went to school.
“I recognized those who held me, I recognized those who killed my father. I don't know why it happened. I had never even fought with these people when we were in school."
The 22-year-old was with his father Mohammed Akhlaq on the fateful night when a mob in Bisara village in Dadri dragged them out of their house following rumours that they had consumed beef.
Akhlaq and Danish were beaten severely before police arrived. They were rushed to Kailash hospital in Noida.
Danish was bleeding profusely from a blunt force injury to his head and Akhlaq was barely breathing. Akhlaq succumbed to his injuries 30 minutes later while Danish hung on with ventilator support.
Danish spent two months in hospital with severe injuries. He was initially kept in Intensive Care Unit and had two complicated brain surgeries.'
The incident triggered the intolerance debate with many eminent personalities venting their ire against the Modi government and some returning their awards to register their dissent.
