Asiya slaughters cow, releases video to defy ban

Firebrand woman separatist leader Syeda Asiya Andrabi on Friday slaughtered a cow in full public gaze here and released a video of the defiance.

The 1:15-minute video, which is doing the rounds of social media, shows Andrabi holding a knife and supervising the slaughter of a black cow at her Soura residence here.

While she recites some religious verses, two masked men cut the animal.

“We are defying the Indian law by slaughtering the cow,” Asiya announces on the video as the cow is killed, amid sloganeering by her burqa-clad supporters.

Andrabi, the chief of the radical Dukhtaran-e-Millat organisation, slaughtered the cow within hours of the state High Court’s directive to “strictly implement an existing order banning sale of beef in the state”.

Hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate Parimoksh Seth against cow slaughter, a division bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal had on September 10 directed Director General of Police (DGP) K Rajendra to “ensure strict compliance of the order on beef ban by issuing appropriate directions to all senior superintendents and station house officers in the state”.

“Strict action shall be taken in accordance with law against those who indulge in this activity,” the HC had observed.