NEW DELHI, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- A lawmaker from India's ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in a public statement said cow smugglers and slaughters will be killed.
The warning came from a BJP lawmaker in India's western state of Rajasthan Gyan Dev Ahuja.
"I will only say that if you smuggle and slaughter cows, then you will be killed," Ahuja told media.
Ahuja's statement came following the thrashing of a 46-year-old Zakir Khan alleged cow smuggler in Ramgarh area of Alwar district in Rajasthan by a group of self-proclaimed cow vigilantes on Saturday.
The man was arrested for cattle smuggling.
Ahuja said Khan was not beaten up by people but was injured after the truck carrying him overturned.
"As the public was following the truck, it overturned, resulting in the injuries," Ahuja said. "The people didn't beat him. He was injured because the vehicle overturned."
Rajasthan has become the hub of cow vigilantism as several cases of people being attacked by vigilantes for allegedly smuggling bovines were reported in the state.
Majority of Hindus consider cow to be sacred, and its slaughtering is banned in most Indian states. To defend cows, groups under the patronage of rightwing Hindu organizations have come up in rural areas of India to protect them and stop sale of beef. The groups routinely check vehicles and often beat up cattle traders.
The vigilantism around cows, however, seems to have intensified since 2014, the year BJP ascended to power under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
Beef, however, is part of diet to many minority groups in the country, who consume it without any taboo.
Cow slaughtering is a sensitive issue in India and sometimes flares up communal passions.
In 2015, a 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death by a Hindu mob at Dadri in Uttar Pardesh over rumors that the family was eating beef and two others were killed for allegedly transporting cows for slaughter.
The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi too have criticized the cow vigilantes. However, his rebuke has neither stopped attacks against cattle traders nor mob lynching in the name of beef eating.
