A group of cow vigilantes armed with sticks and rods reportedly murdered a 50-year-old Muslim man who was allegedly transporting cows. The incident took place near Brakhad village of Madhya Pradesh’s Narmadapuram district two days ago on August 2.
According to a report from The Wire, the deceased – Nazir Ahmed – was travelling with 40-year-old Syed Mushtaq and 38-year-old Shaikh Lala when, at around midnight. They were stopped and assaulted by the group.
Lala tried to reason out with the angry mob saying they were only taking the cows to Amravati to sell them in an animal fair. In the violent incident, Ahmed received serious head injuries and succumbed while undergoing treatment. Mushtaq and Lala also received injuries.
The police reached in half an hour and shifted the injured to a nearby district hospital.
Later speaking to reporters, Mushtaq said, “We had hardly travelled 8-10 kilometres when they blocked our road, forced us to come out of the truck and attacked us without enquiring into anything. They were armed with sticks and rods and killed Ahmed.”
Two FIRs have been lodged by the police. While the first FIR is filed against the attackers that do not include any names, the second is filed against the survivors.
“An FIR was lodged against 12 unidentified people under section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting) and 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon) of the Indian Penal Code while another FIR was registered against the two survivors for illegally transporting the cows. Soon we will make the arrests,” Narmadapuram Superintendent of Police Gurkaran Singh said.
According to the police, around 26 cows were ‘rescued’ and two cows were found dead.
This is the second incident in three months. On May 2, two adivasi tribals were lynched to death by a group of people in Seoni district. The killers reportedly belonged to the Hindutva group Bajrang Dal.
Reacting to the latest incident, Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja tweeted against such killings and demanded strict action by the state police.
