Clashes between BSF Jawans and Muslim cow smugglers at Indo-Bangla border are not new incidents, however, India is witnessing an upsurge in the number of such cases within the country since Cow Slaughter Ban is imposed in many states of the country in order to fetch the need of growing Muslim population. For the same reason, Gorakshaks are vigil who consider the protection of cow itself is a religion. However, the smugglers are becoming more violent and aggressive too.
Cattle smuggling in India is the movement of cattle for slaughter and processing from the states of India where cattle slaughter is illegal to those states where it is legal as well as to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh. It is widespread in India, with some estimates stating that over a million cattle are smuggled every year. India itself has over 30,000 illegal slaughterhouses that operate in filthy conditions.
History says that cow smuggling was prevalent during the colonial era such as to the Portuguese Goa. It supplied the urban Goan demand for beef. In the post-colonial era, the reports and scale of cattle smuggling is astounding, where cattle is transported every day in thousands of trucks from Ganges Valley region to slaughterhouses in West Bengal in order to produce beef for exports. Cruelty to cows wounds an average Indian for whom cow is as important as his/her own mother.
Unfortunately, cow smuggling continues as a serious social issue in India. As per reports, between January 2009 and February 2016, the Rajasthan police had registered over 3,000 cases of cow smuggling, arrested nearly 6,000 people for the crime, and seized over 2,700 vehicles used for cattle smuggling over the seven-year period. Cows are often smuggled from states such as Rajasthan to slaughterhouses elsewhere, however not confined to Rajasthan alone.
Cow smuggling has become an organized and violent criminal network today. In a shocking incident, cow smugglers had chopped off the fingers of a railway crossing gate guard when he refused to allow smuggling trucks to pass through before a train. Corruption, bribes and cruelty to animals is a routine part of the operation. Though news about cow smuggling are often concealed by the pro-left or the so-called secular journalists, attempts to prevent smuggling appears as exaggerated stories of violence against minorities in India.
The Indian state of Jharkhand expanded its cattle slaughter-related laws in 2005 and has criminalized “killing, cruelty to and smuggling of cows”. The Uttar Pradesh state officials announced in 2017 that they will prosecute cattle smugglers under the “NSA, Gangsters Act”, which allows authorities to treat anyone caught smuggling cattle under its statutes for organized crime.
However, there are a number of Indian states where cow smuggling has become a routine incident. The most tragic part of this smuggling is the very way how the cows are smuggled. The extreme cruelty to these innocent creatures that our culture considers holy would bring tears to even the rock-hearted. Here is a shocking video of one among the thousands of cow smuggling in the country.
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