Lynching of U.P. man: Himachal police book case

Bajrang Dal activists claim that smuggling of cattle has been going on for sometime.

The Himachal Pradesh police have registered a case of murder against unidentified persons for beating to death a man at Sirmaur in the Sarahan area for allegedly trying to smuggle a truck load of cattle to Uttar Pradesh. Noman (28), who hails from Uttar Pradesh, died at a hospital.

The mob also thrashed four smugglers who travelled in the truck — Mohammad Nishu (37), Salman (20), Gulzar (22) and Gulfam (24). The four smuggles were later arrested. All the accused have been booked under different Sections of the Cruelty against Animals Act. The truck was impounded.

The mob gathered at Lawasa Chowki on Sarahan-Chandigarh road on the intervening night of October 14 and 15 after Bajrang Dal activists lodged a complaint with the police about the smuggling of cows and calves. The truck was coming from Malerkotla in Punjab. It was proceeding to Saharanpur from Lawasa Chowki near Nahan in Himachal Pradesh.

On seeing the mob and the police, the truck occupants ran into the adjoining forests.

“When the truck driver threw the cows on the road, people chased the occupants who tried to hide themselves in the forest,” said the police. All the accused are from Rampur village in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The Bajrang Dal activists have been alleging that smuggling of cattle from Himachal, Haryana and Punjab to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh has been going on for sometime. There are a large number of stray cattle abandoned by farmers in the countryside in Himachal Pradesh and they are smuggled outside the State by people hired by meat traders of Saharanpur.

BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan Thakur from Nahan has blamed the Congress government in the Himachal for failing to check the illegal cattle trade.

The Himachal Congress has demanded the immediate arrest of those involved in the lynching.

Tension in Saharanpur

Mohammad Ali reports from Meerut:

Tension and display of public anger was reported from the Behat area in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh after the lynching of Noman in Himachal.

Noman’s family alleged that it was the Bajrang Dal activists who beat him to death. Noman used to work as daily wage labourer.

Imran Asghar, a relative of Noman, told The Hindu on the phone, “You can’t kill people like this. What has happened to this country? Even if he was found to be with cows it does not mean that you would lynch the person.”

“We are extremely poor people. Most members of Noman’s family are daily wage labourers. He was working as a daily worker and working for somebody who were doing this criminal act,” Mr. Asghar said.

He said the people who were involved in the business of cows would never be punished. “These are poor people like us who get lynched. Nothing happens to the big people who run this industry,” he said. Noman’ body was brought to Sahranpur on Friday and was buried by his family members.