Hindu mob kills Muslim over beef

New Delhi – A village mob in northern India beat one Muslim to death with sticks and injured four others who were accused of smuggling cows to be slaughtered for beef, police said on Friday.

The survivors were arrested for alleged animal cruelty.

Hard-line Hindus have been trying to force a national ban on cow slaughter, triggering mob violence. A Muslim man was lynched in Uttar Pradesh state last month over false rumours that his family had eaten beef for dinner.

Hindus worship cows as a sacred animal and some Indian states ban slaughtering them. The country of 1.3 billion is about 81% Hindu and 13% Muslim.

Officer Somya Sambhasivam said police were searching for villagers who fled after the attack in Sarahan, a village in the Himachal Pradesh state. The area is nearly 260km north of New Delhi.

The mob chased the truck loaded with five cows and 10 bulls and attacked the five occupants of the vehicle, Sambhasivam said.

The five hid in the forest until police found them and took them to the hospital, where one of them died, she said.