The assailants dragged the driver by his hair while recording the incident
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Right-wing members associated with a cow vigilante group brutally attacked a Muslim truck driver transporting bulls in his vehicle in Haryana’s Nuh earlier this week. The incident occurred on Wednesday (December 18) but came to light when the video of the attack went viral on Saturday.
The video on different social media platforms shows the extremist group forcing truck driver Arman Khan to kneel while interrogating him. The assailants beat Khan and dragged him by his hair, compelling him to repeatedly chant “gau hamari mata hai” (the cow is our mother) and “bail hamara baap hai” (the bull is our father).
The incident is part of a broader pattern of violence associated with cow vigilantism in the country. Several vigilante groups, often associated with Hindutva ideology, have been reportedly involved in numerous instances of religious vigilantism and hate crimes, with the Muslim community being mainly targeted.
These attacks involve harassment, beating and more severe forms of violence such as lynchings. One of the horrific instances includes Nasir, aged 25 years, and Junaid alias Juna, aged 35 years, who were abducted and charred to death by Bajrang Dal members on suspicion of cow-smuggling on February 16, 2023.
Their bodies were found inside a burnt vehicle in Haryana’s Bhiwani district later.
A 19-year-old boy, Aryan Mishra, was shot dead on August 23 by a group of cow vigilantes, who pursued him under the assumption that he was involved in cattle smuggling, according to the police. Five men were later apprehended and placed in judicial custody.
Mishra, a Class 12 student enrolled in an open school in Faridabad, was pursued and killed assuming that he was a Muslim, reports said later. The incident occurred near Palwal. Mishra had left his home at night to join five friends in an SUV.
As per the police, the main suspect, Anil Kaushik, is associated with an organisation called Live for Nation, which promotes cow protection.
Meanwhile, a report released by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSOH) on November 19, covered an alarming rise in mob lynchings targeting Muslims across the country, often justified by perpetrators under the guise of “cow protection” laws.
The report discovered that 95 per cent of cow vigilante social media accounts where they stream harassment online are operated from states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with Haryana emerging as a significant hotspot, making up 320 of the examined records.