Lynching of Muslim man over beef-eating 'sad and undesirable': Modi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the brutal killing of a man on suspicion that he consumed beef was "sad and undesirable".

In his first response on the lynching, Modi condemned the incident but said his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government could not be blamed for the incident.

In an interview with a Bengali-language newspaper, the Indian prime minister also criticised the cancellation of a concert in Mumbai by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali after protests and threats from the far-right Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party, which is an ally of Modi's BJP.

"The Dadri incident and the protest against the Pakistani singer are sad and undesirable. But what is the role of the federal government in these incidents?" he asked.

The BJP has "never supported such incidents", he claimed.

"The opposition parties are highlighting these incidents and accusing the BJP of communalism, but in doing so, are they not themselves practising the politics of polarisation? The BJP has always opposed pseudo-secularism," he said in the interview.

50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death over rumours he had eaten beef, a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation. Akhlaq was dragged from his house and attacked by around 100 people, who beat him with stones and kicked him to death.

Killing cows, considered holy in Hinduism, is banned in many states of India. A forensic test later proved that the meat found in Akhlaq's fridge was mutton and not beef, as his family had claimed.

The Indian prime minister has been under intense pressure from opposition parties and rights organisations in the past few days to condemn the brutal killing.