6 men thrashed by 'gau rakshaks' for allegedly carrying buffaloes in Delhi

Six people were thrashed by a mob in outer Delhi's Baba Haridas Nagar late on Friday for allegedly carrying buffalo calves in six to seven trucks. The mob reportedly vandalised the vehicles in which the buffalo calves were being carried. 

Delhi Police have now filed a First Information Report (FIR). The mob, which allegedly let loose the animals from the vehicles, claimed that the men were taking the calves for slaughter, the Hindustan Times quoted sources as saying. The mob also pelted stones at the vehicles.

Forty-year-old Ali Jaan, one of the six men, is believed to have sustained serious injuries while the other five sustained injuries on their faces and hands.The identity of those who assaulted the six men is yet to be ascertained. The FIR was filed with Baba Haridas Nagar police station.

The incident comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence and spoke against gau rakshaks taking the law into their own hands. He had also warned gau rakshaks from resorting to violence saying that killing people in the name of cow protection was not acceptable.

"Killing people in the name of cow is unacceptable. No one has the right to take the law into his/her hands. We belong to a land of non-violence. Violence is not the solution to any problem," the Prime Minister had said while speaking at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. He added that Mahatma Gandhi would not have approved the killing of innocent people in the name of gau raksha.

This incident also comes days after a 15-year-old Muslim boy named Junaid Khan was killed by a group of men over an argument over seats on a Mathura-bound train in Haryana. The attackers allegedly accused the boy of being a beef-eater. Police have so far arrested five people in connection with the case.

Many people, mostly Muslims, have been killed across the country over the past few months by cow vigilante groups in the name of cow protection. The central government had last month introduced new rules to ban the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter.