Syed Ali Mujtaba                  

New Delhi – One Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal was beaten to death and another from Assam was injured by cow vigilantes in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri on August 27, 2024.

The Muslim victim’s crime, according to the cow vigilantes was that they had eaten beef, and for doing so, they needed to be killed, lynched, and murdered. This is the new normal in India. Since, the victims are Muslims none can use their fundamental right to protest because UAPA awaits them, and they can be in jail for infinite years, facing Joseph Kafka’s trial.    

The crime was reported at the Badhra police station in Charkhi Dadri, Haryana. SHO Tejpal, in the First Information Report (FIR), has given a graphic detail of the incident;    “On the morning of August 27, a group of young men came to Sabir, a rag picker, living in a slum area near Badhra village, and took him to the local bus stand, claiming that they had some scrap to dispose. The cow vigilantes also called another person named Asiruddin, a rag picker to the bus stand.”

“The cow vigilantes started mercilessly beating up the two rag pickers. When the passers-by intervened, the criminals took the victims to some other location on their motorcycles.”

“Later, Sabir’s, dead body was found near a canal in Bhandwa village. While Asiruddin, unconscious body was found dumped at another location,” the FIR report concluded.

 The 26-year-old Sabir is a migrant laborer from West Bengal.  His wife and two-year-old daughter survive Sabir. The 25-year-old Asiruddin who has survived the assault and is under treatment, is a native of Assam.

The Superintendent of Police, Charkhi Dadri, Ms Pooja Vashisth confirmed that the accused were members of a cow vigilante gang and they had beaten the victims because they suspected that they had eaten beef.  

“The people who intervened when the gang was beating the migrant workers at the bus stand, had made a video of the attack, but they did not report the matter to the police,” Ms. Vashisth, told the media adding, “So far five arrests were made, Abhishek, Ravinder, Mohit, Kamaljeet, and Sahil, two among them are juveniles.”

Sabir and Asiruddin had lived in the Badhra, slum area for five years. They were earning their livelihood through rag-picking and no one except the cow vigilantes knew they had eaten beef.

Haryana Assembly polls are slated for October 1, 2024.  The Hindutva goons who have licenses to kill are out on the street sucking innocent Muslims’ blood on the prowl.  Muslim residents fear that the activities of cow vigilantes (Gaurakshaks) will increase due to election fever. Some have even given a call to apply for gun licenses for self-protection.