Nagaon: Two boys in their twenties Abu Hanifa and Riyaz Uddin Ali were lynched by a mob at Kachamari Pathar in Assam on Sunday. The police said the boys lost their lives when a group of people obstructed and attacked them for suspicion of cow stealing.
“The victims were chased by the mob on suspicion of stealing cows from a grazing field and beaten severely. They died while being brought to the hospital,” superintendent of police Debraj Upadhyay stated, reported by HT.
Post mortem reports revealed their ages and they had grave external injuries as a result of the attack.
The slaughtering of cows is banned in Assam except if they have a fit for slaughter certificate from designated places under the Assam Cattle Preservation Act. According to the Act, cows of any age can be slaughtered in the state on the occasion of Id-ul-Zuha.
In some Assam border areas, the cows are smuggled to Bangladesh. After BJP has come into power, several Hindu groups are asking for a ban on cow slaughter. Three Muslims were arrested earlier this month in Jorhat of upper Assam for possessing beef.