In another incident of violence by self proclaimed cow vigilantes, five members of a nomadic family, including a 9-year-old girl was allegedly attacked by a mob of gau rakshaks in Jammu and Kashmir.
The incident took place on Friday evening when the family was moving with their livestock near the Talwara area, said an NDTV report.
According to the report, they were beaten with iron rods by the attackers who even took away their entire flock including goats, sheep and cows. 9-year-old Shammi has suffered multiple fractures and has been transferred to a hospital.
"They beat us ruthlessly. Somehow we managed to flee from there. One of our children, a 10-year-old, is still missing. We don't know whether he is alive or dead. They even beat our elders very badly. They wanted to kill us and throw our bodies into the river," the report quotes Naseem Begam, one of the victims as saying.
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Incidents of cow vigilantes ruthlessly thrashing people they suspect of consuming or smuggling bovine animals have augmented in consequence with the BJP's mammoth victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections this year. With Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of the country's most populous state, gau rakshaks in many parts of the country seem to enjoy immunity, even as incidents such as the one aforementioned have increased disturbingly.
Early this year, a video had gone viral in which a mob is seen brutally thrashing men who were transporting cows in Rajasthan's Alwar. One man among them, Pehlu Khan succumbed to his injuries, two days after the attack. A case was registered against the victims under The Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act, 1995 that prohibits the slaughter and export of cows.
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Days later, Self-styled cow protector Sadhvi Kamal Didi met the accused and compared him with the revolutionaries of the freedom movement, saying "People like Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad and Sukhdev did not do anything wrong.”
