Indian Muslim dies after attack by cow vigilantes

NEW DELHI: A Muslim man has died after he was attacked by hundreds of vigilantes while transporting cows in India, police said on Wednesday, as tensions rose over the slaughter of an animal Hindus consider sacred.

No arrests have yet been made, but police said they had registered a murder case over 55-year-old Pehlu Khan’s death in hospital on Monday, two days after a mob attacked his cattle truck on a highway in Alwar in the western state of Rajasthan.

At least six more people were injured when the truck was attacked by around 200 Hindu vigilantes, who police are still trying to identify.

But police also said they were preparing a case against the survivors of the attack, whom they suspect of trying to smuggle the cattle across state borders.

Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, where squads of vigilantes roam highways inspecting livestock trucks for any trace of the animal.

Slaughtering cows is illegal in many Indian states and some also require a licence for transporting them across state borders.

Alwar police chief Rahul Prakash said the victim and his associates were returning to their home state of Haryana when the mob intercepted their vehicle.