Mob kill two over suspected cow theft

Mob kill two over suspected cow theft
Published May 1, 2017
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Two Muslim men have died after they were attacked by Indian villagers who suspected them of stealing cows , police said Monday , the latest such attack over the animal Hindus consider sacred .
Police in the northeastern state of Assam said they had registered a murder case over the deaths of Abu Hanifa and Riyazuddin Ali who were beaten with sticks on Sunday . Two suspects have been detained for questioning.
“ They were chased and beaten with sticks by villagers who said the two boys were trying to steal cows from their grazing field, ” Debaraj Upadhyay , Nagaon ’ s top cop, told AFP by telephone .
“ By the time we took them to the hospital at night they had succumbed to their injuries, ” he added .
The incident comes amidst a wave of rising tensions over the killing and smuggling of cows in Hindu- majority India, where the animal is considered sacred and its slaughter is a punishable offence in many states .
There have been a spate of attacks in recent months by ‘ cow protection ’ vigilante groups , who roam some highways inspecting livestock trucks for any trace of the animal .
A Muslim man died last month after his truck carrying cows was attacked by a group in western Rajasthan state .
But Updadhyay dismissed any suggestion that a vigilante group or association was involved in the latest incident .
In 2015 , a Muslim man was lynched by his neighbours over rumours that he had slaughtered a cow. Police later said the meat was mutton .
Critics say the vigilantes have been emboldened by the election in 2014 of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’ s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party .
Last year Modi criticised the cow-protection vigilantes and urged a crackdown against groups using religion as a cover for committing crimes .
AFP
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