A Muslim man has died after he was attacked by hundreds of Hindu vigilantes while transporting cows in India, police said yesterday, amid rising tensions over the slaughter of the sacred animal.
Pehlu Khan, 55, died in a hospital late on Monday, two days after a mob attacked his cattle truck on a highway in Alwar in western Rajasthan state.
Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India and their slaughter is illegal in many states.
In parts of northern and western India, squads of vigilantes roam highways inspecting trucks for any trace of the animal.
Alwar Police Chief Rahul Prakash said at least six others were injured in the attack, but had been discharged from the hospital.
Police are still trying to identify the attackers and have filed a murder case, he said, adding that an autopsy would determine the cause of Khan’s death.
Prakash said the victim and his associates were returning to their home state of Haryana when the mob intercepted their vehicle.
At least 10 Muslim men have been killed in similar incidents by Hindu mobs on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows in the past two years.
In 2015, a Muslim man was lynched by his neighbors over rumors that he had slaughtered a cow.
Police later said the meat was mutton.
Critics have said the vigilantes were emboldened by the election in 2014 of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Modi last year criticized the cow-protection vigilantes and urged a crackdown against groups using religion as a cover for committing crimes.
However, he last month appointed a right-wing Hindu priest to head the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, which is also home to much of the country’s meat industry.
Shortly after he was sworn in, police began shutting down butchers, grinding much of the industry to a halt.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese