A Muslim man was shot dead allegedly by cow vigilantes near Govindh Gadh in Alwar district of Rajasthan when he was transporting cows, while his aide has been admitted to a private hospital after being badly beaten up.
According to an initial report by News18, the incident took place near Rajasthan-Haryana on November 10 when the two men – Ummar Khan and Tahir Khan – were transporting the cows to Haryana when they were waylaid by the mob and assaulted. Umar died of a bullet wound. His body was kept in a mortuary.
Relatives of the two men alleged that policemen were also present when the incident took place. They have demanded immediate arrest of the accused, but no FIR in the case has been registered so far.
Sher Muhammad, chairman of the Meo Panchayat of Alwar, told News18 that villagers claimed the people who fired the bullets were not in any uniform. “We are calling it a case of lynching too as they have not only been shot but also beaten up,” said Muhammad.
He said the family will not take the body from the mortuary and bury it until a case is registered to make sure that Ummar’s case does not meet the same fate as that of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer, who was lynched by cow vigilantes in Alwar's Behror area in April when he was transporting cows. The police removed names of 6 accused from the FIR after saying that not one of them was even anywhere near the place where he was beaten up.
According to an IndiaSpend content analysis of the English media, Muslims were the target of 51% of violence centred on bovine issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 86% of 28 Indians killed in 63 incidents.
As many of 97% of these attacks were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government came to power in May 2014, and about half the cow-related violence – 32 of 63 cases – were from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party when the attacks were reported, revealed their analysis of violence recorded until June 25, 2017.
