Cattle smugglers assaulted a Hindu monk (mahant) and stole three cattle from a gaushala (cow shelter) on Tuesday night in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan reports Dainik Bhaskar.

The gaushala is located near a Hanuman temple in Kaman town. Mahant Kanhaiya Lal said that the heavily armed cattle thieves arrived in a Scorpio car on Tuesday night, beat him up and stole the cattle. The monk has been admitted to state hospital for treatment. Police arrived at the spot but the accused had already fled by then, and could not be traced despite setting up of roadblocks in the area.

Local peoples protested the inability of police to stop frequent instances of attacks by cow smugglers and other thefts. A common gathering was organized on Wednesday evening and protestors warned that if police & administration did not expose those behind these crimes within 10 days, they would surround the police station and organize a dharna (protest) there.

This attack is reminiscent of last year’s gruesome torture and murder of 2 elderly Hindu monks by a gang of cow smugglers and butchers in Auraiya, UP.

Parts of Bharatpur district of Rajasthan fall in the historical region of Mewat, which is centred in Nuh district of Haryana. Mewat is notorious as a hub of cow smugglers and other criminal gangs which have terrorised people of UP, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi-NCR. There are frequent shootouts between police and the cow smugglers in these affected areas, but even police hesitates to enter no-go areas of Mewat to take this mafia head on.

In desperation, local villagers & farmers have organized themselves into groups known as gau-rakshaks (cattle defenders) to protect their cattle and assist law enforcement. However, the gaurakshaks are demonized by elites & media in Lutyens’ Delhi as ruthless vigilantes, whereas the smugglers are painted as innocent cattle traders/dairy farmers.

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