Muhammad Hazek was attacked after being wrongly accused of stealing cows. Four suspects have been arrested.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A 28-year-old Muslim businessman, Muhammad Hazek, was brutally attacked by a group of cow vigilantes in the historic town of Beed in Maharashtra late on Thursday night. The assailants falsely accused Hazek of stealing cows and beat him mercilessly with sticks, leaving him seriously injured.
The incident occurred when Hazek, a shoe trader, was returning home. He was on the phone with his fiancée when he witnessed a speeding vehicle hitting a cow and driving away. Hazek attempted to capture a photo of the fleeing vehicle but was unsuccessful. Instead, he took a picture of the injured cow and sent it to his fiancée, reports reaching here said on Saturday.
While on his way home, he was suddenly confronted by a group of people armed with sticks. The assailants, mistakenly believing that Hazek was involved in cattle theft, attacked him. His cries for help alerted his family, who rushed to the scene and managed to rescue him. Hazek was subsequently taken to a private hospital, where he is currently receiving treatment.
The Beed City Police have since registered a case against eight individuals in connection with the assault. Inspector Sheetal Kumar said the attackers mistakenly believed that Muhammad Hazek was a cow thief. “We had received information about the theft of a cow earlier that night, and it appears the crowd wrongly assumed Hazek was involved after he took a photo of the injured animal,” he was quoted by local media as saying.
Four suspects, identified as Mandar Deshpande (30), Omkar Lande (23), Anil Ghodke (26), and Rohit Lolge (20), all residents of Beed, were arrested and produced before the court on Friday. The police have charged them under various Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections.
The incident is part of a worrying trend of attacks on Muslims in the name of cow protection in various parts of the country, including Haryana and Mumbai. As investigations continue, the community in Beed remains on the edge, calling for justice and an end to such violence.
