Vehicles shifting cattle 'attacked' by activists

HYDERABAD: Suspected Gow Raksha Samithi activists attacked shepherds and cattlerearers who were transporting goats, sheep and cows to the city for Bakrid, in the last one week.
Deputy commissioner of police (LB Nagar), D Nagendra Kumar told TOI that a complaint was registered at the Vanasthalipuram police station last week stating that miscreants stopped a lorry carrying cattle and attacked the persons transporting the animals.The animals were taken away and abandoned in the neighbourhood, he added.
However, animal traders claimed that in the last one week alone there were at least two to three incidents of attacks on shepherds shifting goats to the city between Vanasthalipuram and Ibrahimpatnam. The cattle and cash were taken away by force from them by the miscreants.
'Late on Tuesday night, the activists came in a few fourwheelers and stopped the vehicle carrying goats. They displayed placards of Gow Rakshak Samithi and were against the sacrifice of animals and started attacking us," the victims stated in the complaint. Butchers Ghouse of Bahadurpura, Baba of Hussaini Alam and Moin Qureshi also became target of the activists.
A majority of the cattle come to the city from Maimanguda near Ibrahimpatnam. Recently, MBT activists along with some victims had approached Cyberabad police commissioner Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao and requested him to identify culprits and take action against them. ``Following the incidents, patrolling on the Sagar highway, Vanasthalipuram and Ibrahimpatnam has been intensified," Nagendra Kumar said.
However, GRS president G Hanumantha Rao denied reports of attacks on butchers and animal owners. “Our organization is passing on information on cows being shifted for slaughtering, since it is banned. Our members do not indulge in attacks." Meanwhile, the AP Goshala Federation members met Tirumala Rao and requested him to take stern action against those slaughtering cows.