Latest ‘cow vigilante’ attack in India: Beaten for shooing cows away from their field

Videos of the event posted online show herdsman Muhammad Asghar and his nephew Javeed Ahmad attacked, dragged outside and hit with sticks by a mob reciting Hindu nationalist slogans, even as a police officer arrives and attempts to stop the violence. The beating occurred in the Garri Gabbar village in the Reasi district in India’s northern Jammu division, where the local Muslim population belongs mainly to the Gujjar ethnic group.

Asghar’s son chased away some cows who were grazing on their land a few days prior to the attack. In doing so, he allegedly wounded one of the cows, leading to an outbreak of anger from the Hindu community.

According to The Wire, the man who owns the cows called the local police to report the injury. When police did not immediately respond, he and other members of the Hindu community took matters into their own hands.

The Reasi District Police initially arrested three of the attackers, but the senior superintendent of police in Reasi, Rashmi Wazir, told The Wire that police “have taken cognizance against all those who are seen hitting the man in the video”. Asghar’s son, 16, was also arrested under the Animal Cruelty Act.

On August 16, police announced the investigation on social media and implored the public to maintain peace, calling the viral video of the event a tool to “instigate communal tension” in the region.

The France 24 Observers team has been following other attacks by “cow protectors” across India since 2016. “Cow vigilantism” is reported often, with many instances of Hindu groups attacking Muslim individuals suspected of harming, slaughtering, selling or eating bovine animals. The cow is considered sacred to Hindus, and its slaughter is illegal in some Indian states, including Jammu and Kashmir.

>> Read on the France 24 Observers: Why do mobs keep attacking suspected beef traders in India? 

It’s part of a broader victimization of the Muslim community in the Jammu division. It’s all just done to target these people [the Gujjars]. It's sort of a religious aspect because Hindus revere cows, they think they’re sacred. And they feel that these Muslims attacked their deity and that is why they went and attacked them. But the fact that they attack these people with impunity also says a lot. These guys, they enforce everything on the ground.

>> Read on France 24: Muslim man killed in new suspected India 'cow lynching'

According to Human Rights Watch, 44 people – including 39 Muslims – were killed in attacks related to cows in India between May 2015 and December 2019. Members of the BJP Party have also been documented speaking in support of these cow protection actions.