The alleged smugglers threw a few of the animals out of the truck and fled into a nearby forest, NDTV reported, triggering a hunt lasting several hours.
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The four other occupants of the truck were, however, booked under the Cow Slaughter Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act after police found the truck was carrying cattle. “It is written nowhere that Muslims have to eat beef, nor is it written anywhere in Christianity that they have to eat beef”.
Hindus worship cows as a sacred animal and a few Indian states ban slaughtering them.
The casualties were caused after the mob chased the truck loaded with five cows and ten bulls and attacked the five men in the vehicle in Sarahan, a village in Himachal Pradesh State, located about 260 kilometers north of the capital, New Delhi.
Despite the slaughter of cows being widely banned, India ranks as the world’s top beef exporter, thanks largely to buffalo meat exports, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The trade is mostly run by Muslims. “Investigation can progress only if they identify the attackers”, said Soumya Sambasivan, the local police superintendent.
The senior leader of India s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that Muslims can continue to live in India, but they will have to stop eating beef.
“Eating beef hurts the sentiments of another community, even constitutionally you can not do this”, he said in response to a question that preventing people from eating food of their choice was an infringement of their constitutional right.
Responding to this Khattar said the killing was a “result of misunderstanding” and that “both sides” had committed wrongs. More than 20 writers have returned awards in the past two weeks, saying India’s secular fabric was under attack from Mr Modi’s hardline supporters.
Political opponents have accused Modi’s party of looking to create religious tension ahead of a crucial electoral test this month in the northern state of Bihar.
In what appears to be another incident highlighting the growing religious intolerance in India, another Muslim man has been lynched near the northern town of Shimla following rumours that he was smuggling cattle.
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Tougher measures to safeguard cows have been used in the past as a rallying call by politicians seeking to win Hindu votes, sometimes leading to Hindu-Muslim riots.
