Hyderabad: Thirteen bulls that were illegally being transported in a vehicle resembling an ambulance were charred to death on Saturday night in Telangana’s Nizamabad district after the vehicle caught fire. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that the animals transported were cows but the Nizamabad police commissioner has confirmed that they were bulls.
The truck was on its way to Hyderabad from Nizamabad when it caught fire on National Highway 44 in the night.
“Yesterday night, 10 cows were transported to Slaughterhouse in ‘Ambulance’ from Nizamabad to Hyderabad, 8 cows were burnt alive in the ambulance and the driver is on the run. @TelanganaDGP should immediately act against the people behind this,” Goshamal MLA and BJP leader Raja Singh tweeted on Sunday.
Siasat.com spoke to Nizamabad Commissioner of Police K R Nagaraj about the accident. The senior police officer said that a post-mortem was done on the charred bodies by a veterinary doctor who confirmed that they were bulls and not cows.
“The reason for the fire was mostly due to a short circuit in the vehicle. It was not a proper ambulance vehicle. It was a tempo that was modified into an ambulance by placing a siren,” he added.
He further said that the driver has been taken into custody for interrogation.
Asked why were the animals being transported illegally, the senior police officer speculated that the Ramzan festival was one of the reasons. “We are yet to conduct a full interrogation of the driver but it is possible that the bulls were been taken for Ramzan feasts,” he said.
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