Self-proclaimed cow vigilantes in Mewat district in Haryana have urged their workers to apply for gun licences, causing fear among the Muslim community in region.
According to a report by The Hindu, many WhatsApp groups shared the message urging the cow vigilantes to arm themselves with guns.
Mewat has witnessed several lynchings of Muslim dairy farmers over the last couple of years. The controversial death of Junaid and Nasir last year forced Muslims to abandon their trade.
Mohammed Ali, a 27-year-old dairy farm trader is now a driver. “Since Junaid and Nasir’s death last year, we have quit our family business of dairy farming and we started working as drivers,” he told The Hindu.
Another farmer who sought anonymity said that after the news, he stopped his two young sons from attending animal fairs in Rajasthan as he feared for their lives.
“For months, I did not allow my two sons to go to the fair to make purchases and made ends meet with great difficulty by practising the trade in and around our village. However, as our means dried up, we started to buy buffaloes from neighbouring villages and continued for our trade,” the farmer was quoted by The Hindu.
The report stated that cow vigilantes frequent the Delhi-Mumbai highway, the usual route by cattle farmers to harass Muslim men. Interestingly, Hindu drivers are not harmed.
