A mob of cow vigilantes beat up a man with the allegation that he was smuggling half-a-dozen cows to Haryana in Rajasthan’s Alwar district in the early hours on Monday. Police rescued the victim from the crowd and admitted him with multiple fractures at the government hospital in Shahjahanpur.
The man, identified as Munfed Khan, accompanied by a few other persons, was allegedly taking the cows in a pick-up van, which broke a police barricade near Khusa Ki Dhani village. Police had put up the barricades on Sunday night after getting a tip-off about smuggling of cows.
The villagers stopped the van and rescued the cows, while the people travelling in the vehicle tried to escape. The mob caught one of them, Munfed Khan, and thrashed him, though at least two others fled from the spot.
Bhiwadi Superintendent of Police Amandeep Singh Kapoor said Munfed Khan had a criminal record of smuggling cows in the past. He said the first information reports had been registered against both the sides and the animals were sent to a local cow shelter.
‘Public spectacle’
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties said that this was a case of “attempted mob lynching”, in which the victim picked up by the cow vigilantes was criminalised and beaten up. “This episode was meant to create a public spectacle and instil fear among the Muslim dairy farmers,” PUCL-Rajasthan president Kavita Srivastava said.
This post was first appeared on thehindu.com