Hindu 'cattle patrols' in India seek to protect cows from beef eaters

Hindu 'cattle patrols' in India seek to protect cows from beef eaters

From The Washington Post, December 2015, Yadavnagar, India: Hindu vigilantes attack beef-eating Muslims.

"'Our gods and goddesses reside inside the body of the cow,' said Satya Pal Acharya, a Sanskrit school teacher and a cow protector. 'As long as our cows are healthy and alive, our civilization will thrive. Sometimes we have to strengthen the hands of the government to implement the laws.'

"The recent violence began in September, when an angry Hindu mob broke down a door and dragged a 50-year-old Muslim man from his home outside New Delhi, following rumors that he had eaten beef. The mob then kicked him and beat him with bricks until he died. When the police sent the meat stored in his refrigerator for forensic testing, it turned out to be goat.

"Two weeks ago, another vigilante group fatally beat a truck driver transporting cows in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh. In Kashmir, a mob burned a Muslim teenager over rumors of cow slaughter. When a Muslim lawmaker in Kashmir held a 'beef party' in protest, he was assaulted by lawmakers from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the floor of the statehouse, as cameras rolled."