By Online Desk
A Muslim man was shot dead by alleged cow vigilantes, and his body was thrown onto railway tracks in Rajasthan's Alwar on November 10.
According to a News 18 report, the victim Ummar Khan and two others were transporting cows to Fahari village near Alwar's Govindh Gadh when they were attacked. His companions were also attacked and sustained injuries.
Ummar Khan's uncle has filed a complaint with the Alwar police, identifying one among the attackers, who is a member of the "Gau Raksha group," the report said.
Though the police are yet to make an official statement on the murder, medical officials confirmed a bullet injury to be the reason for Ummar's death.
The three were reportedly rounded-up by a group of eight before being assaulted around five in the morning. They were accused of transporting cows for slaughter by the group.
Ummar's uncle Iliyas Muhammad said the injuries found in the body indicates that he was lynched before being shot. He also alleged that the murder happened in the presence of police officers, who did nothing to stop the attackers.
Ummar Khan is survived by his wife and eight children.
In a similar incident earlier this year, a dairy farmer Pehlu Khan from Jaisinghpur village in Haryana, was lynched by cow vigilantes in Alwar while he was returning home after purchasing two cows and two calves from a Jaipur cattle fair. In September, the Rajasthan police had given a clean chit to the six attackers named in Pehlu Khan's dying statement, trigerring nationwide outrage. Following this, Khan's family had sought a Supreme Court probe into the killing, demanding that the case be shifted out of the state.
The head of Meo community panchayat, Sher Mohammad, said that even if Ummar Khan was involved in cow smuggling, there are laws to deal with smugglers. "Who has given the cow vigilantes the right to take the law into own hands. Police should act against cow vigilantes," he said.
Social worker Maulana Haneef claimed that Khan, along with two others, was ferrying cattle in a vehicle when unidentified men opened fire at them. Khan died on the spot.
"We staged a protest outside the mortuary at a hospital in Alwar where the body was kept and have demanded early arrest of the accused," he said.
The Mewat region is known for rearing cows and now "self-proclaimed cow sympathisers" of various right wing outfits are targeting those who rear cows, the social activist said.
"The matter is under investigation. We are awaiting the post-mortem report," Govindgarh police station SHO Daulat Ram said.
The post-mortem will be conducted in Jaipur.
(With PTI inputs)
