Appealing against giving a political or communal twist to the recent killings in the country, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said lynching of any human being as " condemnable and barbaric" that can not be accepted by a civilized society.
"lynching or killing any human being is condemnable, barbaric and civilised society cannot accept it. It is for the law enforcement agencies of the respective States to take the strongest possible action," Naidu told PTI.
The Minister commented in the backdrop of a series of incidents of lynching of people of minority community, the latest being a Muslim killed by a mob for allegedly carrying beef in a van in Jharkhand Thursday.
Earlier this month, 17-year-old Junaid Khan was stabbed to death onboard a train between Delhi and Mathura. The group of attackers had allegedly hurled communal slurs and attacked the victim after an altercation over seats.
A few days ago, over a 100-strong mob attacked a Muslim man on the suspicion of slaughtering a cow after finding the carcass of a bovine near his house in Giridih district of Jharkhand.
In April, 55-year-old Pehlu Khan was killed allegedly by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar while he was transporting cows for his small dairy farm.
"let us not give it a religious colour. let us not divide the society," Naidu said, when asked about the Jharkhand lynching case.The Union Minister asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the stand of the government very clear through his remarks that no one should take the law into their hands in the name of cow protection.
"Some people are trying to overplay, some are trying to politicise it and some are trying to communalise it. I appeal (to them) not to politicise or communalise such incidents," he said.
On the incidents of killings, Naidu said it was the duty of the respective state governments to "take appropriate, prompt and strong action against the people who are responsible".Such acts bring bad name to the society and the country, he said.