Six held for lynching Nahan ‘cattle thief’

SHIMLA/NAHAN: The police on Saturday detained six people for allegedly lynching a youth for smuggling cattle in Lavasa village of Sirmaur district.

Police are yet to establish whether the attackers belonged to some Hindu right-wing organisation. “It seems that the matter is being blown out of proportion by a section of the media,” director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Kumar told HT.

The police have also sent a team to the native village of deceased, Noman, to verify his antecedents. The police had already registered a murder case against unidentified persons for lynching Noman. Security in Lavasa village has been beefed up and vehicles crossing the interstate border at Paonta Sahib are being checked, said Sirmaur superintendent of police (SP) Soumya Sambasivan.

Meanwhile, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) state organisation secretary Manoj Kumar demanded that police should initiate action against cattle smugglers. “The VHP had submitted memorandums to the authorities and had complained to the police about cattle smuggling in the state, but no avail,” he said.

“I had also taken up the issue of stray cattle with chief minister Virbhadra Singh and he had agreed to constitute a gau sanrakshan prakoshth. Kangra police has lodged a first information report against cattle smugglers on my complaint three months ago, but no action has been initiated so far,” said Kumar.

Terming the incident barbaric, president of All Himachal Muslim Welfare Society Naseem Mohammad Didan said: “The act of killing a person by a mob is inhuman.”