Indian villagers beat Muslim cattle smuggler to death

NEW DELHI: Villagers in northern India have beaten a Muslim to death for attempting to smuggle cattle for slaughter, police said.
Twenty-year-old Noman and four others were severely beaten before being handed over to police in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, according to officials.
Police said the five smugglers were attacked by villagers after abandoning their vehicle which was full of cows and bulls, next to a highway after it broke down on the way to the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state.
“The other four persons are in a good state but Noman died because of his injuries,” Soumya Sambasivan, superintendent of police in the Sirmaur district told AFP, adding that the victim was a Muslim.
“We have registered a second case against unidentified persons for murder,” Sambasivan said, referring to an earlier case registered against the smugglers for animal cruelty. “For now, it looks entirely unrelated to any group or entity.”
The killing comes less than a month after the lynching by villagers of another Muslim, Muhammad Akhlaq, who was dragged from his home near New Delhi and beaten to death by a hardline Hindu mob over unsubstantiated rumours that he had eaten beef.
The chief minister of the northern Haryana state, Manohar Lal Khattar, drew ire on Friday after saying that India’s minority Muslims should stop eating beef out of respect to practising Hindus. “Muslims can live here, but in this country, they will have to stop eating beef,” Khattar, a member of the ruling BJP, told The Indian Express newspaper. He later said his comments had been distorted.
Cattle smuggling and tension over their illegal slaughter is routine in the Himachal Pradesh region, according to police, and villagers frequently beat those whom they catch. Despite the slaughter of cows being widely banned, India ranks as the world’s top beef exporter, thanks largely to buffalo meat exports, according to the US Department of Agriculture. -AFP
APP adds: Hurriyet leaders and organisations in Indian-held Kashmir have paid glowing tributes to two youth who were martyred by Indian troops in Doda on Thursday.Hurriyet leaders Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Hakeem Abdul Rasheed and Syed Bashir Andrabi, in a joint statement issued in Srinagar, said the sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris for the Kashmir cause would not go waste, KMS reported.
Dukhtaran-e-Millat Chairperson Aasiya Andrabi and the Muslim Deeni Mahaz, in their separate statements, also paid homage to the martyred youth. They said the mission of the Kashmiri martyrs would be taken to its logical conclusion at all costs. Thousands of people in Doda attended the funeral prayers for the two youth.
According to Kashmir Media Service, people, while carrying the bodies of Ghulam Muhammad Mangnoo and Riaz Ahmad in a procession to the Eidgah, raised high-pitched pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, eyewitnesses said.Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy, Imam of Doda Jamia Masjid, led the funeral prayers. A complete shutdown was observed in the town to protest the killing.