Five nomads, including a nine-year-old girl, were injured after they were attacked by alleged gou rakshaks in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.
Representative image | AP
The nomads were traveling with herds of sheep, cows, goats and a few dogs when they were intercepted and beaten up by a mob of more than 300 people at Talwara.
They said the attackers assaulted them and also planned to push them into the river nearby.
"They beat us and thrashed my old uncle," said a woman nomad. "They robbed us and even attempted to molest us."
The woman said her son,10, was missing after the attack.
Another woman said the attackers took all their herds and belongings.
Reasi SP Tahir Bhat told THE WEEK that the attackers had been identified and would be arrested soon.
"We are trying to get the goods and livestock snatched from the nomads; it will be returned to them soon," Bhat said. "They (attackers) are a bunch of goons and an FIR has been registered against them."
Sources told THE WEEK that arrest of the cow vigilantes had been delayed for fear of law and order problem and communal tensions.
Javid Rabhi, an influential leader of nomads, told a news channel that migration of nomads happens during April when bakerwal families from Jammu start to move towards Kashmir for grazing the livestock. "We have requested the government to put security in the plains of Jammu where such attacks have taken place,'' he said.
The attack has enraged people across Kashmir. Two years back, Zahid Ahmed, a young Kashmiri trucker was killed after gau rakshaks torched the truck he was travelling at Udhampure on Srinagar -Jammu highway on suspicion that he was ferrying beaf.
Zahid died a few weeks later at AIIMS in Delhi. The incident had come as a major setback to the PDP-BJP government especially Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayyed.
Senior NC leader Mian Altaf, who is also a leader of the Gujjars of the state, has condemned the attack on the nomads.
He called the attack a highly deplorable act and demanded action against the culprits. "They should be immediately arrested and punished under the law," Altaf said.
