3 men were pulled out of a truck and thrashed by mob for allegedly smuggling cows for slaughter
Mohammed Kaamil's father is reluctant to let his sons, cattle traders, out on business. Last month, Kaamil's brother Afraz was allegedly beaten up in the national capital by some people who left him off after taking away his money and phone. A few days later, on 22 April, it was Kaamil's turn. He was on his way to Ghazipur Mandi in east Delhi when some cars forced his truck to stop on a busy Kalkaji road. Kaamil and two men, Rizwan, 25 and Ashu, 28, were pulled out of the truck and thrashed by the mob angry that they were smuggling cows for slaughter.
"I pleaded. No, they're buffaloes and not for slaughtering, only for sale but their voices drowned ours," recalls 25-year-old Kaamil, back home in Haryana's town of Pataudi 70 km from the south Delhi locality. "Look around," his father Ayub says, standing on the roof of the house, from where you can see the entire town. There is a buffalo shed practically in every house.
"We buy cattle, transport and sell them at the Ghazipur Mandi... We are not involved in slaughtering, just trade", he says. But two back-to-back attacks have forced him to wonder if cattle trade had become a little dangerous.
"I don't want them to do this work anymore, their life is more important", he says.
Mohammad Zahid, the local councillor, suggests Ayub isn't the only one worried for the safety of his children. "It is usually the young ones who transport the cattle but now families are worried sick about their safety," he says. But it is easier said than done. "What else will they do for a living... so now we live and do business in fear," he concedes.
It is a risk that Ashu, who was also beaten up along with Kaamil, is willing to take.
He had moved to Pataudi from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh in 2015 in search for a better life with his wife and four children. For him, it meant working as a labourer to help in transporting cattle and maintaining the truck, a job that fetches him a precious income of 7,000 rupees a month.
It isn't enough to send their eldest child to school. "Despite the fear, I cannot ask him to move back because how will we pay for our expenses and send our children to school?" Ashu's wife Rani asks.