Show of strength by butchers when police rescue animals

NAGPUR: It seems to have become a trend. Everytime the police rescue animals headed for slaughter, butchers from slaughter houses in Nagpur gather in large numbers and create a ruckus while interfering with the investigations. In certain cases, they have succeeded in robbing a few of the rescued, alleged PFA activist Karishma Galani.
After rescuing 24 cattle crammed into a truck headed for slaughter house in Gittikhadan on January 23, the Kalamna police, as per norms, sent the animals along with a constable to a cow shelter behind Janki Talkies in Sitabuldi.The owner of the animals and truck driver followed the truck to Sitabuldi and called over their peers, who gathered in large numbers. In no time, the number of butchers swelled to nearly 200.
The lone constable accompanying the rescued animals and the meager staff at the shelter were ill-equipped to face the situation and had a harrowing time. In fact, they were scared of their life.
Out of the 24 cattle rescued, only 19 now remain in custody of the animal shelter. While two calves have died so far, three have gone missing. Since the NMC-run Sitabuldi shelter is ill-equipped to house so many cattle, the police and NMC agreed to hand over animals to a rescue centre. The remaining 19 cattle were transferred to Gorakshan Sabha in Dhantoli on Thursday.
PV Motghare, one of the grazers at Sitabuldi said, "We were transfixed with fear seeing such a huge mob. How were we to protect ourselves? We were provided no protection from the police and the lone constable Narendra who brought the animals to the cow shelter too was scared. Instead of helping us, the police tried to create undue pressure on us to house the animals. How could we prepare papers for 23 animals when we received only 19?"
He added that he was even scared to return home alone that night and pleaded with the police to ensure that such an incident does not recur. "My BP shot up and I was terribly shaken," he added. While the butchers in a show of strength scared the wits out of the staff at the animal shelter, the activists, mostly women, felt helpless before the mob. The police have filed a case against Sheikh Altaf, Babu Sheikh Habib and Astaq Patel.
The incident points at the increasing clout of butchers who do not think twice before breaking the law. Meanwhile, the police remain toothless tigers and fail to disperse the errant crowd.
In a similar incident on January 4, a bunch of police personnel, outnumbered by a sizeable mob of butchers, was left helpless as two animal right activists were subjected to thrashing for trying to save 40 buffaloes. Cops later arrested eight of attackers charging them with riot, assault and threatening but released the animals the next morning. The nearly 250 butchers were demanding release of the animals at the police station.