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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | For Haryana Police, the Holy Cow Is an Excuse for Extra-Judicial Killings -Neha Dixit

For Haryana Police, the Holy Cow Is an Excuse for Extra-Judicial Killings -Neha Dixit

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published Published on May 10, 2018   modified Modified on May 10, 2018
-TheWire.in

The Wire meets families of 16 people who lost their lives in extra-judicial killings by the police on the suspicion of smuggling cows in the Mewat region of Haryana.

Nuh (Haryana):
On the wintry night of December 6, 2017, as Shareef lay on the bed in his courtyard in Salaheri village in Nuh, flashes of memory from 25 years ago kept disrupting his sleep. He recalled how his friend Aarif was killed in Jaipur in the aftermath of the communal violence that followed the Babri Masjid demolition. Shareef shut his eyes to block images of the night of December 6, 1992. Under his breath, he cursed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists who that very evening had taken out a ‘victory rally’ to protest the number of mosques in his village. The rally brought back memories of Aarif’s death. Shareef said a quick prayer, covered his face with the quilt and went off to sleep.

The next morning, he woke up to a WhatsApp image of his dead 23-year-old son, Taleem. The message claimed Taleem, a truck driver, was killed in a police encounter the previous night, on charges of cow smuggling.

At present, 24 out of 29 states in India have laws on cow protection. Some states allow cattle slaughter following ‘fit for slaughter’ certification, depending on the age, gender and economic viability of the cattle. Other states have fully banned it. All state cow protection laws lead to criminal offences, most of them cognisable and non-bailable. They gesture towards how the law is prone to being used to protect majoritarian sentiments.

Haryana passed the Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act for cow protection in 2015. Section 16 of this law authorises the police or any other designated person to enter, stop and search any vehicle used or intended to be used for exporting cows. The authorities are empowered to seize the vehicle as well as the cows. Section 17 authorises confiscation of vehicles.

Taleem’s killing is only one instance of the use of unbridled power, impunity and political patronage by the police, in the name of cow protection. Such a culture of impunity has wreaked havoc in Mewat.

The Wire’s investigations revealed how 16 people lost their lives in extra-judicial killings by the police on the suspicion of smuggling cows in this region in recent years, 13 of them after 2014. Most victims were young Muslim men from weaker socio-economic castes such as Qureshis and Meos, with marginal assets or land. Most among the slain were truck drivers, partially dependent on farming, animal husbandry, dairy and meat supply for livelihood.

Please click here to read more.

TheWire.in, 10 May, 2018, https://thewire.in/communalism/for-haryana-police-the-holy-cow-is-an-excuse-for-extra-judicial-killings


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