Beef Ban Hysteria Claims Fourth Life In Three Months
By Countercurrents.org
30 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Photo Credit: Livelaw.in
The Hindtuva fundamentalist led beef ban hysteria in India has consumed another life. An alleged cow smuggler was shot dead and his accomplice injured in an encounter with Haryana police near Thanesar town in the wee hours on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as Abid (27) of Yamunanagar and his injured accomplice is Ashraf (28), also of Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra Superintendent of Police (SP) Simardeep Singh said.
The police received information about cow smuggling taking place in the early hours. A police party reached Anaj Mandi and tried to stop the smugglers, who allegedly opened fire on the police force. The policemen retaliated in which Abid died while Ashraf was injured. In the alleged firing by smugglers, however no policeman was injured.
The Haryana government has recently brought into effect Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act that bans cow slaughter and prohibits transportation of cows for sale to other States.
This is the fourth such killing in three months in the beef ban frenzy unleashed by ruling Hindutva fundamentalist forces.
On 28 September a mob lynched a 50-year-old man, Mohammed Akhlaq, over the rumours of eating and storing beef. The Muslim man's killing on 28 September led to a massive outrage across the country. Several noted writers and poets are still surrendering their prestigious awards, mostly Sahitya Akademi, to register their protest over the incident and the Centre's prolonged silence on the issue.
In Himachal Pradesh a 28 year old truck driver Noman was lynched to death by a mob in the presence of police on October 16th allegedly for smuggling cow.
18-year-old trucker Zahid Rasool Bhat S/o Ghulam Rasool Bhat of Batengoo in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, who had sustained 70 per cent burn injuries in petrol bomb attack by a violent mob in Udhampur district on October 9, succumbed to injuries in Safdarjang hospital in New Delhi on 18th October.
Zahid along with another Kashmiri trucker and a policeman were injured when a violent mob had hurled petrol bomb towards their truck and assaulted them on October 9 evening after rumours had spread that three cows were slaughtered. The tests, however, have revealed that the cows had died of food poisoning and had no injuries.
An independent MLA Er Abdur Rashid was beaten up inside the Jammu & Kashmir assembly by BJP MLAs for organising a beef party to protest the imposition of beef ban in Jammu & Kashmir.
Recently, Kerala house was raided by police in New Delhi over an allegation that the restuarant in the house was serving beef in blatant violation of the laws, including the federal rights of a state of the union of India. Although beef (especially cow meat) is banned in most of the states in India, beef is not banned in Kerala, West Bengal and several North Eastern states
On 2nd November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threatened to behead Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah if he “dared to eat beef”. Shivamogga district level leader of the BJP SN Channabasappa also said that he would “play with his (severed) head”. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said that he would eat beef if he wished, and that the BJP did not have the right to question him on it.
Recently three writers were killed by fascist forces. Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M.Kalburgi were killed in cold blood and none of the culprits were arrested so far.
Four Padma Bhushan Awards, 3rd highest civilian honour in the country, three Padma Shri awards, 4th highest civilian honour in the country, 40 Sahitya Academi Awards given to eminent literary personalities, 36 National film Awards were returned to Narendra Modi Government as a protest in just 18 months of BJP rule over growing 'intolerance' in the country. The award returning movement is dubbed as 'Award Wapsi' echoing the Hindutva ultra-nationalists’ movement called 'Ghar Wapsi' (home coming) by which people of other faiths are forcefully converted back to Hinduism.