Udupi, Oct 10: A Muslim cattle trader was brutally assaulted by a gang over around 30 miscreants belong to Sangh Parivar at Karkala in Karnataka’s coastal district of Udupi.
The victim of last Tuesday’s attack, identified as Ibrahim Padubidri, is still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Udupi.
The murderous attack comes even as protests erupt across the country against the lynching of a Muslim man by Sangh Parivar activists after falsely accusing him of storing beef in house in Uttar Pradesh.
Police arrived in the nick of time and rescued a barely conscious Ibrahim who was returning after buying three cows and two calves from two Hindu farmers.
The assailants called him thief despite he tried to convince them that the cattle were sold to him by farmers.
Ibrahim, whose family has been in the cattle trade for three generations, said he was waylaid and attacked by around 30 men with metal rods and chains.
“The Bajrang Dal activists also abused and berated the two farmers, saying they should be ashamed of themselves for selling cows despite being Hindus. When the police arrived, the men forced a farmer to file a theft case against me,” he said.
Ibrahim denied the Bajrang Dal’s allegation that he was taking the cows to slaughter. “One of the five cows was pregnant. In Islam, it is a sin to kill a pregnant animal,” he said.
The Bajrang Dal’s Udupi district convenor, KR Sunil, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was their 16th “cow rescue operation” in Udupi district in the last two months.
“We gave him (Ibrahim) a thrashing he won’t forget. This should be a lesson to others,” said Sunil.
Udupi SP K Annamalai said 10 Bajrang Dal activists had been arrested for the incident. “We have also arrested Ibrahim and admitted him to a hospital,” he said adding that transporting cattle in a jeep without permits is illegal.
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