West Bengal: Two men lynched for carrying cattle

Kolkata: Two teenaged boys were lynched by an angry mob in North Bengal on the suspicion of being cattle-lifters. They were Anwar Hussain (19) and Hafizul Sheikh (19). The double murder took place in Jalpaiguri early on Sunday. At around 2.30 am a pick-up van carrying cattle was passing at a high speed through Barohalia village in Dhupguri. 

Waking up to the sound of vehicular movement, some villagers came out and found the truck before stopping it with a group of night guards at a distance. They asked the vehicle's driver about ferrying cattle. Dissatisfied with his answer they attacked him. However, he managed to escape the fury of the mob. The mob dragged out Anwar and Hafizul from the van and beat them to death. 

The van was also vandalised. Anwar was a resident of Sakunibala at Pundibari in neighbouring district: Coochbehar. Hafizul was from Chhotoguma at Dhubri in Assam. They were rescued by the police with fatal injuries. The duo were declared brought dead at Dhupguri Hospital. The two bodies were sent for post-mortem. The police impounded the vehicle with seven cows.

According to the local residents, cattle-lifting has become a routine affair in the village recently. The mob had even accused the two victims of lifting cows at night. The mob alleged police inaction despite repeated complaints. 

SP (Jalpaiguri) Amitabha Maiti said, “A case on murder charge has been initiated. Action will be taken against those who took law into their hands instead of informing the police.” He added, “It is also being looked into why the vehicle was giving rounds well past midnight in the village.”

 Mr Maiti elaborated,  “Preliminary investigation revealed that a haat for the sale of cattle was held at Dhupguri on Saturday. One of the buyers kept the cows at a place for transportation later. A cattle-seller later identified that the cows found in the van was sold from the haat. But why those were being transported so late at night is not clear.”

 On June 23 three persons were lynched by angry villagers in North Dinajpur, also in North Bengal, after they were allegedly caught stealing cows from a house.