PHOTOS: A day in the life of a 'gau rakshak'

[Delnavaz B]

Of late, India’s cow vigilante groups have become more active. Despite a widespread condemnation after a 50-year-old Muslim man was lynched for ‘storing beef’ in his home in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, these groups carry out their operations unabated.

Recently, four Dalit youth in Una, Gujarat and two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh were thrashed by such groups, sparking protests from the Dalit community in Gujarat.

Allison Joyce/Getty Images went out with one such group in Rajasthan to get a sense of their working style.

Members of a cow vigilante group out on a patrol in the hopes of stopping vehicles of cow smugglers in Ramgarh, Rajasthan. The local cow vigilante group, headed by Nawal Kishore Sharma, is one of dozens of such groups operating across India. The members do various day jobs such as teachers, lawyers, marble sculptors, politicians and by night they patrol on watch for smugglers illegally transporting cows for sale and slaughter. Many also work at the cow shelters where the rescued cows are taken.

They place stones on the road to block vehicles of cow smugglers and stand around them, waiting for their target.

The cow vigilante group sometimes also uses a self-made bed of nails to stop the vehicles.

Members of Nawal Kishore Sharma’s group free cows from the back of a truck that the group chased down. The driver fled and disappeared into the forest and around a dozen cows were found in the back of the truck.

Cows injured during the operation are treated at rescue shelters. The group’s head Sharma is seen gesturing as a cow is being sent for medical treatment at one such shelter.

 

[Delnavaz B]

The members of the vigilante group almost always get tip-offs about possible cow smugglers in the area on their mobile phones.

Acting on the tip-offs, the cow vigilantes go out on patrols with arms to catch the smugglers.

Cops also thank and congratulate the vigilante group on its success. A policeman is seen hugging Sharma after his group chased down a truck that was smuggling cows in Ramgarh.

Cows rescued from smugglers are kept at rescue shelters.

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/pix-out-on-patrol-with-gau-rakshaks/20160727.htm

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[Taimoor Khan]

http://www.dawn.com/news/1273512/muslim-women-beaten-over-rumours-of-carrying-beef-in-india


Muslim women beaten over rumours of carrying beef in India


NEW DELHI: Two Muslim women have been beaten up at a railway station in central India on suspicion of carrying beef, an offence in many parts of the Hindu-majority country, police said Wednesday.

The meat the women were carrying has since turned out to be buffalo, but police in Madhya Pradesh state said they were attacked on Tuesday at a busy station, apparently after a group of vigilantes raised suspicions.

Video footage broadcast on local television channels showed a group of women slapping, kicking and punching the two as a large crowd gathered.

In the video filmed by one of the spectators, policemen are seen making feeble attempts to control the crowd.

The two women were subsequently arrested on suspicion of carrying beef.

Tests found it was actually buffalo, and they now face the lesser charge of carrying commercial quantities of meat without a licence.

Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them is illegal in most Indian states.

Several states also bar the sale and possession of beef, and there has been a recent upsurge in attacks by vigilantes from the Hindu right on people suspected of killing cows.

“We had prior information and had deputed force to arrest them but unfortunately some people attacked them,” said Manoj Sharma, district police chief of Mandsaur where the incident occurred.

None of the people who attacked the two women had been arrested for the assault, Sharma said.

It comes days after a group of low-caste Hindu men were beaten by vigilantes in the western state of Gujarat on suspicion of killing a cow — a charge they denied.

The men said they were taking the dead cow to be skinned — a task commonly given to low-caste villagers in India, where the animals roam freely.

Opposition parties raised the latest attack in parliament on Wednesday and demanded the government act against vigilante groups.