A 45-year-old Muslim man identified as Siraj Khan, accused of killing a cow was beaten to death by a mob in central India, police said Sunday.
The Muslim tailor became the subject of this latest vigilante murder, over the animal considered sacred by Hindus. It was gathered that Kahn’s friend Shakeel Maqbool, who was also attacked in the incident which occurred in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh state early Friday, was admitted to hospital with critical injuries, while Khan died at the scene, local police official Arvind Tiwari told AFP.
Following the mob action, 400 additional police were deployed to the district late Saturday as inquiries widened, the Press Trust of India reported.
“We have arrested four people, and they have been sent to judicial custody. We are investigating what prompted the attack,” Tiwari said.
Though the police boss didn’t speak much on the outcome of the investigation which is still ongoing, however he disclosed that meat and a bull carcass was found at the scene.
Hindus consider cows sacred and slaughtering the animals, or possessing or consuming beef, is banned in most Indian states. Cow slaughter in Madhya Pradesh carries a maximum seven-year jail term but many other parts of India impose life sentences for infringements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to completely outlaw cow slaughter in India.
Following two prominent mob cases last year in which a dairy farmer was killed on a roadside for transporting cows and a Muslim teenager accused of carrying beef was stabbed to death on a crowded train, Rights groups in India said that Hindu mobs have been emboldened under Hindu BJP, who took over power in 2014.
The political party have been accused of turning a blind eye to a rising number of vigilante attacks in the name of cow protection.
