Indian police yesterday said one person had been arrested after a mob stabbed a Muslim teenager to death on suspicion of carrying beef, an offense in many parts of the Hindu-majority country.
Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them, as well as possession or consumption of beef, is banned in most Indian states, with some imposing life sentences for breaking the law.
Junaid Khan, 15, was on Friday traveling from New Delhi with three of his brothers when a fight erupted over seats.
Between 15 and 20 men pulled out knives and set upon the brothers while making anti-Muslim comments and insisting one of the packets they were carrying contained beef.
While Khan was stabbed to death, his brother Shakir sustained injuries on the throat, chest and hands, police said.
“The fight started over seats. We are looking into the matter and we have arrested one of the accused, who is a 35-year-old man from Haryana,” railway police official Ajay Kumar told reporters.
Khan’s brother Hassem told reporters the mob ignored their repeated pleas that they were not carrying any beef.
“They were pointing at a packet which had food and saying we should not be allowed to sit since we were carrying beef,” Haseem said.
The incident is the latest such attack by Hindu vigilantes in India, where there has been a spate of assaults against Muslims and Dalits.
In the past two years, nearly a dozen Muslim men have been killed across the country on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows.
Critics say vigilantes have been emboldened by the election in 2014 of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu right-wing 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.
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