Police arrest 21 after cow ‘slaughter’ violence in India

NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested 21 men after a mob thrashed two Muslims suspected of slaughtering a cow and set fire to some dozen shops, officials and reports said on Saturday.
The incident was reported from northern Uttar Pradesh state, where a mob recently murdered a 50-year-old Muslim man for supposedly eating beef -- a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation.
"A rumour spread (on Friday) that a cow has been slaughtered, after which some people beat up the men and resorted to arson," Chandrapal Singh, a senior administrative officer of Mainpuri district, told AFP.
Singh said a post-mortem of the cow showed it had been dead for a while owing to some ailment and the men were only removing its skin when they were attacked by the mob.