by An 18-year-old schoolboy was shot and killed by cow vigilantes in India after they chased him for miles on suspicion of cattle smuggling.
The incident took place in Faridabad in the northern Indian state of Haryana on August 23, days after a migrant worker was beaten to death by another cow vigilante group in the state’s Charkhi Dadri district on suspicion of eating beef.
Cows are considered sacred and worshiped by many Hindus, the religion that makes up a large majority of India’s population. Cow vigilante groups have been accused of enforcing Indian laws, often violently, that prohibit the slaughter of cattle and the consumption of beef.
Scores of cow “protectors” have been accused in recent years of using violence to carry out extrajudicial activities, often at odds with law enforcement. But their activities have received public support from those who believe they are defending the Hindu faith. Their activities have increased since prime minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 as the leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The vigilantes were allegedly searching for cattle smugglers when they chased Aryan Mishra’s car for about 18 miles (30km) before opening fire, NDTV reported.
Five members of the group were arrested in connection with the incident. The accused, identified as Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna, Adesh, and Saurabh, claimed that they had received information that smugglers were active in the area in Renault Duster and Toyota Fortuner cars, hoping to pick up cattle.
Mishra and his friends, Harshit and Shanky, were in a Renault Duster car when the vigilantes stopped them. It is said that the occupants of the car had a dispute beforehand with another person, that they had mistaken the vigilance for their rivals and that they went away.
The vigilantes, convinced that the occupants were cattle smugglers, chased the car and opened fire, hitting Mishra. When the car finally stopped, the attackers fired another shot into Mishra’s chest, resulting in his death, it was reported India Today.
According to the police, the suspects initially tried to mislead the investigators, saying that they threw the weapon into a canal. However, it was later recovered from Kaushik’s home, police said. The arrested men are currently in police custody, and further investigations are underway.
Mishra’s killing comes on the heels of another brutal incident in Haryana when a group of cow vigilantes beat Sabir Malik, a migrant laborer from West Bengal, to death on August 27 on suspicion of consuming beef. Authorities arrested seven people, including two minors, in connection with Malik’s death, as the state grapples with an increase in such crimes.
Hardline Hindu groups are demanding a complete ban on cow slaughter across India, and some states are enacting strict laws against it. Critics say the laws have corralled the vigilantes, which has led to an increase in attacks on those accused of slaughtering cows for meat or leather – mainly people from the minority Muslim community and those in the lower ranks of it. the ancient caste system of India.
Last week, a 55-year-old woman died, reportedly of a panic attack, after police raided her home in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh state to see if she was storing beef. In the end their search revealed that she was not.
Uttar Pradesh enforces strict laws against cow slaughter, with violations punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to Rs500,000 (£4,500). The state’s anti-cow slaughter law not only prohibits the slaughter of animals, but also the sale and transportation of beef.
In the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh, authorities bulldozed the homes of 11 people in June after allegedly finding beef in their refrigerators and cows in their backyards. Police later claimed that the houses were demolished for being illegally built on government land, without providing evidence.
In September last year, police arrested Mohit Yadav, better known by his alias Monu Manesar, after he was accused of inciting deadly religious violence in the northern Indian state of Haryana in July.
The head of a unit set up by a hardline Hindu group to protect cows, he was detained for allegedly uploading “negative and inflammatory” posts in the run-up to religious violence in Nuh in which at least six people were killed and several others injured. He was also accused of murdering two Muslim men in the neighboring state of Rajasthan.
In April last year, four members of the right-wing group All India Hindu Mahasabha were arrested in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly falsely implicating cow slaughter by Muslim men. The arrests were made after police uncovered the group’s involvement in filing a false complaint against four Muslim men for alleged cow slaughter.
In March 2023, police in Bihar arrested three men in connection with the death of a Muslim man, Naseem Qureshi, who was attacked because he was suspected of carrying beef.
On September 1, an elderly Muslim man was attacked by his fellow passengers on a moving train in Maharashtra’s Nashik district on suspicion of carrying beef. Police arrested three men allegedly involved in the incident after a video of the attack went viral on social media.
