Cow vigilantes on the prowl ahead of state elections in October
Syed Ali Mujtaba
NEW DELHI – Ahead of the state assembly elections in Haryana in October, cow vigilantes have become active again; a Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal was beaten to death and another from Assam was injured by them in Charkhi Dadri earlier this week (August 27).
The victims’ crime? They had consumed beef. And on this simple allegation, they needed to be murdered. This is the new normal thing in India. Since the victims invariably happen to be Muslims all rights of protests are taken away because stringent punitive laws await them, enough to keep them behind bars for an indefinite period.
The August 27 crime was reported at the Badhra police station in Charkhi Dadri. In the First Information Report (FIR), SHO Tejpal has given a graphic detail of the incident. “On the morning of August 27, a group of young men came to Sabir, a rag picker, living in a slum area near Badhra village, and took him to the local bus stand, claiming that they had some scrap to dispose of. The cow vigilantes also called another person named Asiruddin, a rag picker to the bus stand.”
“The cow vigilantes started mercilessly beating up the two rag pickers. When the passers-by intervened, the criminals took the victims to some other location on their motorcycles.”
“Later, Sabir’s dead body was found near a canal in Bhandwa village. While an unconscious Asiruddin was found dumped at another location,” the FIR said.
The 26-year-old Sabir is a migrant labourer from West Bengal. He is survived by his widow and a two-year-old daughter. The 25-year-old Assam native Asiruddin is undergoing treatment.
Charkhi Dadri Superintendent of Police Ms Pooja Vashisth confirmed that the accused were members of a cow vigilante gang and they had beaten the victims merely on the suspicion that they had consumed beef.
“People who intervened when the gang was beating the migrant workers at the bus stand made a video of the attack. They did not report the matter to the police,” she told the media. “So far five persons namely Abhishek, Ravinder, Mohit, Kamaljeet, and Sahil have been arrested and two of them are juveniles.”
Sabir and Asiruddin were residing in the Badhra slum area for five years. Strangely, no one except the cow vigilantes knew that these rag pickers had consumed beef.
Haryana polls are slated for the first week of October. Muslim residents fear that the activities of cow vigilantes will increase as the elections draw near.
