Ahmedabad sources have stated that Prime Minister Modi said yesterday that the killing of people by cow vigilantes is unacceptable. "Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti are not acceptable". He said "No person in this nation has the right to take the law in his or her own hands in this country" and this (violence) is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve of.
It was stated that PM Modi has been targeted by critics for not condemning the growing list of attacks by self-declared cow vigilantes, many of them in states governed by his party, the BJP. In one of them, Rajasthan, 55 year old named Pehlu Khan, was beaten relentlessly in April for transporting cows for his dairy farm after his assaulter accused him of smuggling the cows illegally. He died of his wounds.
A series of steps taken by the centre and its state governments like the
introduction of new rules that restrict the sale of cattle for slaughter and
the crackdown on abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh is being seen as targeting Muslims,
who dominate the meat trade.
