Muslim man gunned down by 'cow vigilantes' in India

Body was thrown on a railway track to depict the event as an accident

Cow vigilantes in India have allegedly gunned down a Muslim man transporting cows and left another one injured in Alwar district of Rajasthan.

The incident took place on Friday in Rajasthan state, where a similar incident happened in April this year, The Hindu reported.

A mob ambushed the vehicle that was carrying four cows from Alwar to Ghatmika village in Bharatpur district. The deceased, identified as Umar Khan, and his associate Tahir Khan were assaulted and shot at by the angry crowd.

Umar Khan's body was thrown on a railway track in a bid to depict the event as an accident and later brought to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in Alwar after being damaged by a train running over it.



Relatives and members of the Meo Muslim community, to which the victim belong, have refused to accept the mutilated body of Usman Khan from the hospital's mortuary where it was being kept.

There were reports of Tahir Khan, who escaped from the spot, being treated at a private hospital in neighbouring Haryana state.

Earlier today, a protest was staged outside the hospital in Alwar to denounce the incident and police’s failure to catch the culprits or stop the mob from carrying out the heinous crime despite being present on the occasion.

However, police have yet to register the first information report (FIR) of the incident.



Assaults meted out in broad daylight against India’s Muslim population, some 14 per cent of the country’s 1.3 billion people, have sparked concern about the direction the country is taking under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

There has been another, less noted dimension to the violence: The theft from Muslims and redistribution to Hindus of cows that provide crucial income in the Indian countryside.