'In yet another case of police high-handedness, a family in Mawana town of Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh has alleged that cops from the local police station ransacked their house on mere suspicion that one of their family members was involved in illegal animal slaughter. The incident of alleged police vandalism took place in Rajo Wala Bagh area of Mawana on Saturday night. According to the family, nearly a dozen policemen barged into the house asking for Mohd Umar. When the family told cops that the man was not in the house, the policemen started breaking household items...'
'On rare occasions, the Indian government—which prides itself on visions of universal digital literacy, online services, and biometrical identity schemes—still conducts certain official communications by radiogram. An operator sitting at a radio transmitter taps out a message, and then a receiver spits out the transmission in another part of the country, generating an instant legal document.
'The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested two persons for thrashing two youths and spreading a 'false' story of cow slaughter in Bulandhshar. The arrests followed the wide circulation of a video showing the two youths being hit with sticks by a group of at least six persons in Sikandrabad area on March 2. The two had claimed that while assaulting them, the assaulters accused them of cow slaughter and hurled communal abuses at them while referring to the Delhi violence...'
'Adding one more incident to the long list of lynchings in Jharkhand, a 50-year old adivasi from Jurmu village of Gumla’s Dumri block was beaten to death on suspicion of cow slaughter by a mob allegedly belonging to the Sahu community of neighbouring Jairagi village on April 10, says a fact-finding team’s report. The deceased – Prakash Lakda – had gone there for skinning a dead ox along with three others – Peter Kerketta, Belarius Minj and Janerius Minj – who sustained injuries in the murderous assault, it said.
'A local meat seller who was allegedly beaten up by the Uttar Pradesh police over allegations of cow slaughter has died in a Delhi hospital. Salim Qureshi alias Munna was picked up by two police constables on June 14 from his home and taken to a private wedding hall where they beat him up severely, his wife Farzana has alleged in a complaint lodged with the police. He died on Friday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), she said...'
'A legendary South Asian dish has suddenly found itself in the midst of a war in India. Made up of layers of meat and rice and cooked with fragrant spices, the dish is the much-loved biryani. And the latest battlefield is in the northern Indian state of Haryana. The police there have been collecting biryani samples from households and shops in Muslim districts like Mewat, to check if the meat in the biryani is beef – the consumption of which is anathema to many Hindus.
'Shaista, daughter of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was lynched by a violen mob in Dadri village over rumours of eating beef in September, on Wednesday named six more people as being part of the mob. Local police officials are investigating their involvement in the case. According to sources in the local police, the six persons are close to Sanjay Rana, the local BJP leader, whose son Vishal and nephew Shivam are accused of creating the rumours and gathering the mob which lynched Akhlaq...'
'Terming those who slaughter cows as the country's biggest enemies, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Thursday said they had "no right to live in the country". "Anyone who kills cows, no matter which community he belongs to is India's biggest enemy and has no right to live in the country," Rawat said addressing a function on the occasion of Gopashtam in Haridwar on Thursday...'
'The strident campaign against cow slaughter will have an adverse impact on the leather industry, which employs close to 2.5 million people, mostly Dalits... There is no cause to believe that the decisive defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s communal and caste politics in Bihar will mean an end to its vicious campaign against cow slaughter. The online threat from a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) official’s twitter handle to retailers to stop selling goods made of cow hide is clear evidence.
'...Several nights a week Mr Sharma marshals his "patrolling soldiers", as he calls them, to keep a watch on what they say are smugglers illegally transporting cows to sell for slaughter. Groups like his are thriving thanks to the rising hysteria and sporadic violence over slaughter of cows and consumption of beef in India. The ruling BJP government has tightened laws on both since coming to power last year. The cow, venerated by India's majority Hindu people, has re-emerged as India's most polarising animal.
