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A MUSLIM MAN has died after he was attacked by hundreds of Hindu vigilantes while transporting cows in India, police said today, amid rising tensions over the slaughter of the sacred animal.
Pehlu Khan, 55, died in hospital late on Monday, two days after a mob attacked his cattle truck on a highway in Alwar in the western state of Rajasthan.
Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and their slaughter is illegal in many states.
In parts of northern and western India, squads of vigilantes roam highways inspecting livestock trucks for any trace of the animal.
Alwar police chief Rahul Prakash said at least six others were injured in the attack, but had now been discharged from the hospital.
Police are still trying to identify the attackers and have filed a murder case, he said, adding that a postmortem would determine the cause of Khan’s death.
“We are yet to receive the postmortem report but he had multiple rib fractures,” he told AFP.
Prakash said the victim and his associates were returning to their home state of Haryana when the mob intercepted their vehicle.
At least 10 Muslim men have been killed in similar incidents across the country by Hindu mobs on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows in the last two years.
In 2015, a Muslim man was lynched by his neighbours over rumours that he had slaughtered a cow. Police later said the meat was mutton.
Critics say the vigilantes were emboldened by the election in 2014 of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Last year Modi criticised the cow-protection vigilantes and urged a crackdown against groups using religion as a cover for committing crimes.
But last month, he appointed a right-wing Hindu priest to head the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, which is also home to much of the country’s meat industry.
Shortly after he was sworn in, police began shutting butcher shops, grinding much of the industry to a halt.
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I take it there is no drive tru McDonald’s there yeah?
@Gerry Fallon: there is, but they only sell McNuggets. And they dont have any szechuan dipping sauce…
Also, anyone else read that headline and think of a ‘cows with guns’ type situation? Sneaky cows
@Gerry Fallon: haha you beat me to it. Bet you dont get a nice steak there. Funny thing is although Hindus treat the cow as sacred
I never saw them being fed or watered by these same devoted people. They just walk around slowly starving
@Gerry Fallon: There is Gerry, you just gotta drive really really fast.
We live in a mad mad world of crazy beliefs
@Mel Fitzpatrick: why are our beliefs not crazy..
@Jimmy Berg: generally civilised counties don’t kill someone over a cow. That’s mainly left to religions
@Michael Hayden: did it ever occur that they might be right, and we shouldnt be eating cows. Hindu beliefs are far more believable than our own.
@Jimmy Berg: There’s always one.
@Jimmy Berg: If by beliefs, you mean the unprovable existence of a so called omnipotent diety that people believe would help them find their car keys but can’t be bothered curing cancer, that loves all his children but created a place for them to be in torment for eternity, that asks his followers to engage in a cannabilistic ritual involving the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood, etc., then yes, your beliefs are every bit as crazy.
@Just Me: yep i dont believe in zombies.
@Jimmy Berg Whatever.
@Jimmy Berg: I never once implied that our beliefs aren’t crazy either lad, calm down
don’t kill cows because they are sacred but kill people because they aren’t .. you’ve got to love their logic
@Dean Anderson: i gave decided that my fog Rocky is actually sacred, I am living with a God!
@Gus Sheridan: dog. Dog. Dog. Sorry God
@Gus Sheridan:
Boxer…??
@Dean Anderson: There is no logic, look at how the peace loving Buddhists in Myanmar treat the Rohingya people, prejudice seems to be a splinter of all religions.
@Austin Rock:
it takes a lot of provocation to upset the ‘peace loving Buddhists’
the Rohinga are 100% muslim, and their looting, raping, murder & violence drove the ‘peace loving Buddhists’ to defend themselves.
@Gus Sheridan: Well Holy doG!!!
A Jesus I’ll have to tell my local butcher to beef up his security so
Pity they don’t see human life as sacred
What’s a Hindu?… lay eggs… I’ll get my coat.
India is such a progressive country
Holy cow !!!!
Bovine stupidity.
Religion! The more wrong and irrational it is, the more likely it is to claim it is the truth.
@Tony Daly: I think you’ll find all religions claim theirs to be the true one.
@Just Me: too true.
Religion, where would we be without it. Killin each other and hatin each other a little less maybe. I used to think, religion isn’t really the motivator, people do horrible stuff and religion is a good excuse/ scapegoat. Now I dunno. I’d like to see religion gone and see if we miss it. In our holes we would.
have your say