MOB ATTACKS NOMADS ON SUSPICION OF COW SMUGGLING

A mob of 200 people attacked a nomadic family in Jammu’s Reasi district on suspi cion of cattle smuggling, police said on Saturday.

Tahir Sajjad Bhat, Reasi sen ior superintendent of police, told HT that two people were injured in the assault on Thursday but news agency IANS reported that five people were beaten up including a nine-year-old girl.

Police said the nomads were crossing a stretch in Reasi’s Tal wara with a large number of goat, sheep and cattle, when they were attacked by a group of sus pected vigilantes.

Large numbers of nomadic tribes usually travel across the border state at this time of the year with animals in tow, most of them sheep and horses.

“An FIR has been lodged. We have arrested persons involved in the attack on the nomad fam ily moving with their livestock – cattle, sheep and goats on the night of April 20,” a senior police officer told IANS.

TV channels reported cow vigilante groups were involved in the incident and had thrashed the nomads with iron rods but police refuted the claim. “It was a clear-cut case of misunder standing and no cow vigilante group was involved in it,” said the SSP. The injured were dis charged from hospital on Friday

The cow is considered holy by many Hindus and has been at the centre of a growing nationwide debate over meat consumption