Burhan Kinu's images of the aftermath of Dadri lynching have won the Ramnath Goenka award for Photojournalism 2015.
n the evening of September 28, three days after the festival of Eid-ul-Zuha, 55-year-old Mohammad Ikhlaq and his son, were attacked by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Bisada village for the alleged offence of killing a cow and consuming its meat.
The mob dragged Ikhlaq and his son Danish, 22, outside and started beating them brutally. Ikhalq succumbed to his injuries, while Danish was wounded.
The events of that dark night in Bisada shocked the country.
When HT’s team arrived in Bisada village the following day, they witnessed a scene of grief and protest.
Covering moments of personal grief is never an easy reporting task. When Burhaan Kinu arrived at Ikhlaq’s residence, he was not unfamiliar with such situations, having covered conflict in Kashmir with his camera.
Keeping his editorial integrity above all, Burhaan tried his best to capture the human side of this violent story. In the days that followed the lynching, the village turned completely hostile towards the media. On one occasion, an angry mob of women snatched at Burhaan’s camera, which he managed to retrieve with great difficulty before running back to his cab.
On what inspires his work, Kinu says, “When I am holding the camera, I do not belong to any religion, caste or creed - I am just a journalist trying to bring out stories that may otherwise be ignored.”