India, July 13 -- In the years since 2015, the Karwan-e-Mohabbat, the Caravan of Love, founded by activist Harsh Mander, and this writer, among its core members, has visited nearly a hundred places where people, mostly Muslims, had lost their lives to mob violence, often linked to suspicions of cow smuggling or eating beef.

Over nine years or so, they met families who had lost loved ones to such lynchings, listened to their accounts, and offered what support they could.

Barakheda, a quiet village in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram district, was the site of one such lynching on the night of August 2, 2022, when truck driver Nazir Ahmed was passing through with cattle from Nandarwada towards Amravati in Maharashtra along with two companion...