cow vigilantes

NEW DELHI: Police have arrested two Hindu farmers in connection with the killing of a Muslim man suspected of smuggling cows to a slaughter house, the investigating officer said on Wednesday. Hardline Hindu groups have gained prominence since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, and the protection of cows, considered holy by many in the Hindu-majority country, is a priority for them. Police found the body of Umar Khan, 35, on Friday on railway tracks in Alwar district…

NEW DELHI: India’s top court proposed measures Wednesday to stem what it called growing violence by vigilantes who claim to be protecting cows, revered as holy by Hindus. India is reeling from a spate of horrific lynchings by Hindu extremists mostly targeting the country’s Muslim minority, who have historically eaten beef. Critics say that extremists emboldened by the current Hindu nationalist government’s tough stance on cow slaughter are using beef as a pretext to target the community. The Supreme Court was…

NEW DELHI: A Muslim man has died after he was attacked by hundreds of Hindu vigilantes while transporting cows in India, police said Wednesday, amid rising tensions over the slaughter of the sacred animal. Pehlu Khan, 55, died in hospital late Monday, two days after a mob attacked his cattle truck on a highway in Alwar in the western state of Rajasthan. 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…