Why in news?
Two persons, including a station house officer, were shot dead in mob violence in the Bulandshahr village of Uttar Pradesh.
What was the problem?
- A group of villagers gathered outside a police post in protests over a rumour that cow carcasses had been found in forests close to the police post.
- The protest rapidly turned into an uncontrollable mob violence.
- A local man was killed in an hour of violence provoked by allegations of cow slaughter.
- The Station House Officer of that area reportedly tried to control the erupted violence in the village.
- However, he lost his life to the bullets fired in the mob violence.
- The mob that allegedly killed him took away his service gun and mobile phone as well.
- They also burned down a police station and set fire to several vehicles.
What are the concerns?
- The violence is yet another notice of the toll being taken on civic order on account of the failure to crack down on vigilante mobs.
- Many state governments have moved to tighten laws prohibiting cow slaughter in recent years.
- Along with that, bands of cow-protection vigilantes have created an atmosphere of fear among the people.
- They purportedly act on suspicion of cow slaughter to round up and lynch cattle traders at will.
- The hurt sentiments of gau rakshaks motivates hate crime against those who are rumoured to have slaughtered cows.
- Some of the earlier lynchings have been initially projected as an outcome of road rage and not because of cow vigilantism.
What should be done?
- Probes into the killing, in most cases, move in parallel with investigations into the allegations of cow slaughter or the possession of beef.
- A special investigation team has been formed to probe the violence in the recent case.
- Investigations should reveal whether the mob at the police post formed organically, or whether there was a conspiracy to set up a communally polarising confrontation.
- No rumour or act of cow slaughter justifies mob violence and hence the state should ensure that no impunity is provided to the perpetrators of cow vigilantism in the future.
Source: The Hindu
