Car chased, bullets fired: Haryana cops rescue 7 cows from smugglers in Mewat
After an hour-long chase and exchange of gunfire with the cattle smugglers, the Haryana Police team managed to rescue the seven cows that were being smuggled but the thieves managed to escape.
Cattle smuggling and trading once again surfaced in Haryana's minority-dominant Mewat district on Sunday when the local police and cow vigilantes rescued seven cattle loaded on canter after intense chase and continuous firing for an hour. The incident took place at Kharkhari village under Tawru Tahsil in Mewat district around 4 am.
"We had specific information about cattle being smuggled by a group of youngsters in Kharkhari village. We immediately contacted the local police and Crime Investigating Agency (CIA) of Sohna for the raid," said Monu Kumar, an active member of 'Gau Rakshak Dal' unit of Maneser area in Gurugram.
He narrated that by the time a police team reached at the village, a group of smugglers had already loaded the cattle in canter and was about to leave. The cops asked the thieves to surrender, who fired bullets in return, and tried to escape in a vehicle. The police chased the vehicle for 12 kilometers as smugglers continuously fired at them.
"It was an intense one-hour chase as it was quite dark in the area and the smugglers stopped their vehicle at some places to challenge us. They finally abandoned the vehicle and fled. We have recovered seven cows and 40 dead cartridges from the vehicles," said Arjun Rathi, SHO of Tawru police station.
"We have registered an FIR against eight unidentified persons and seized the vehicle used for smuggling. We are now investigating the matter with the help of vehicle registration number," Rathi added. The geopolitical and traditional trend of the entire Mewat - which spans in southern Haryana, Rajasthan's alwar district and south western part of Uttar Pradesh - is as such that the slaughtering of cows is quite common there. Sources told Mail Today that most youngsters belong to minority communities that are involved in cattle smuggling due to high profits. As a result, the trade of beef biryani, which can be obtained from vending carts in every market of the district, is very common there.
Due to frequent cattle trade, the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana formed a cow protection unit headed by an inspector rank officer. An official of cow protection unit, who was also part of the police team, said the smugglers fired at least 50 rounds at the cops. In retaliation, police fired 20 rounds. "Since they stopped the vehicle after reaching a location which was to their advantage, catching them became very difficult for us," he said, requested anonymity.
The official added that Mewat has nine police stations and each of them is registering over five FIRs per day of cow slaughtering. But very few of these smugglers are being arrested, despite the strong "Gau Sanrakshan and Gau Samvardhan Act" enforced by the government. A majority of cows slaughtering taking place in houses owned by financially sound residents of the district and in the Aravali hills. "Slaughtering requires just one small room. Since the demand of beef is very high, cattle smugglers are very active in the district. They smuggle cows from neighbouring Rajasthan and south western Uttar Pradesh through various routes and do not hesitate to attack police and Gau Rakshak Dal activists," the official said.