Haryana: Cow vigilantes assault truck driver for transporting bulls

Chandigarh: Cow vigilantes assaulted a truck driver named Arman Khan and tortured him for transporting bulls in his vehicle in Haryana on December 18, Wednesday, Siasat reported.

A video of the attack, which happened in the Nuh area of Haryana, appeared on social media, and it showed the Hindutva extremists forcing the man to kneel while they interrogated him. They beat him and dragged him by his hair, saying that the cow was their mother while the bull was their father.

Siasat reports that the incident is part of a broader pattern of violence associated with cow vigilantism in India. There are numerous instances of vigilantes associated with Hindutva ideology committing hate crimes across India, and most of their targets are members of the Muslim community.

The incidents of attack involve harassment, beating and severe forms of torture as well as deaths. In such an incident, two Muslims aged 25 and 35 were burned to death by Bajrang Dal members, accusing them of cow-smuggling in February 2023. The victims were identified as Nasir and Junaid, and their burnt bodies were found inside a vehicle in Haryana’s Bhiwani district.

The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) released a report in November, which inferred that there is an alarming rise in mob lynching targeting Muslims in the country. Most of these are under the name of “cow protection”, Siasat reports.

Further, 95 per cent of cow-vigilante social media accounts where they stream harassment online are operated by states ruled by the BJP. Siasat reported that Haryana is a hotspot for similar incidents.