Cow smugglers open fire on cops, one held

TWELVE COWS WERE RESCUED AND THE VEHICLE WAS SEIZED. SOME UNLICENSED ARMS WERE ALSO RECOVERED

Cow smugglers opened fire on police and broke through barricading in Lahsar village near here early on Tuesday morning, but police managed to chase and stop the truck. One person was arrested while two others escaped.

Superintendent of police Kailash Chandra Bishnoi told reporters that they had received information of a mini-truck carrying cows, and set up a barricade. When accosted, the occupants of the truck had opened fire, he said.

Police arrested Irshad Mev, of Haryana’s Nooh Mewat district, under section 307 of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act.

Twelve cows were rescued and the vehicle was seized. Some unlicensed arms were also recovered, Bishnoi said.

Police sources said that before the UP elections, cow smugglers used to take the animals to UP for slaughter, but since Yogi Adityanath became chief minister and has cracked down against beef in the state, the smuggling has shifted to the Haryana border.

Rescued cows are sheltered in cowsheds at Jarkhod, Bhojan Thali and Badipurof Kaman. The biggest cowshed, Jarkhod, shelters thousands of animals.