Cow vigilantism continues, mob attacks six men in Delhi

Six persons were thrashed in an outer Delhi locality by a mob that suspected them to be ferrying cows to a slaughterhouse on Friday evening.

Trouble began when one of the six trucks carrying buffaloes to a slaughter house in east Delhi grazed a vehicle in Baba Haridas Nagar locality near Najafgarh in outer Delhi.

Soon after locals gathered on the spot and began roughing up the truckers accusing them of ferrying cattle illegally for slaughter. Police said the mob vandalised six trucks and thrashed the drivers of the vehicles.

The attack comes within a week of a stern warning from Prime Minister Narendra Modi against cow vigilantism. “Killing of people in the name of gau bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something that Mahatma Gandhi would approve of,” Modi had said last week during a visit to Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.

Police officials said of the six truckers attacked on Friday evening, one Ali Jaan had suffered severe injuries and was recuperating at a local hospital. Five others were discharged after administering first aid.

The mob let loose the buffaloes despite pleas from the truckers that they had valid documents to transport the animals.

The police have registered a case against unknown persons for the assault. However, no arrests have been made yet.

As many as 21 incidents of mob lynching in the name of the cow have been reported from different parts of the country this year itself.

About a fortnight back, 16-year-old Junaid Khan was beaten to death on a train from Delhi to Mathura. Last week, a man was killed in Jharkhand by a group of people who accused him of carrying beef in his car.