Cow smugglers open fire at police, escape

Cow smugglers fired at a police team and Bajrang Dal activists in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district and escaped on Saturday, police said.

The border districts of Alwar and Bharatpur together account for a third of cattle smuggling cases recorded in Rajasthan, police data shows.

Nearly 100 Bajrang Dal activists, on being informed about cow smuggling, reached the spot near Mungaska and Dholabas villages under Pahari police station. They informed the police after cow smugglers fired at them.

A team from Pahari police station reached the spot, but was forced to retreat when nearly 10-12 cow smugglers fired at them from a nearby hill, said Kaman police circle officer Rai Singh Beniwal.

He said cow smugglers had collected stray bovines from local areas and gathered near the hill, from where they were trying to transport bovines by a pick-up van via Jurahara to Haryana. Police seized the van and a motorcycle.

Beniwal said smugglers fled, dumping the bovines at Mungaska, Dholabas, and Bolkhera villages. He said police rescued 18 cows and 7 bulls from forests. “Police teams have been formed to arrest absconding cow smugglers.”

Bajrang Dal district convenor Rameshwar Gurjar said cow smugglers were trying to transport more than 50 stray bovines to Haryana for slaughter. They had kept the bovines near the hill, where they made a ramp to push them into the pick-up van.

“We reached there and informed police. They opened fire on us and the police jeep, and fled. They dumped the bovines in the villages, which are all Muslim-dominated,” Gurjar said.

Smuggling of cows for beef is considered a business in Mevat area of eastern Rajasthan. In Bharatpur district, 65 cases have been registered in 2015 against cow smugglers under Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation Temporary Migration or Export) Act 1995, 65 in 2016, and 27 till May 2017, police data shows.

In the past three years, Rajasthan has ramped up efforts to protect its 13 million bovine animals and end smuggling by setting up 39 police outposts across the state, six each in Alwar and Bharatpur.

The state, where cow slaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in jail, also has set up India’s only cow welfare ministry.

The state has also been dogged by reports of cow vigilante violence. In April last year, dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was lynched by alleged cow-protection vigilantes in Alwar who accused him of smuggling the animal.

In Bharatpur district, Ghatmika village grabbed national headlines last year after local resident Umar Mohammad was found dead on the railway tracks in Alwar. Police said he and two others were transporting cattle when “anti-social elements” attacked them.