Cattle smugglers fire at British NRI, friend in Gurugram

Gurugram, Oct 3: A British NRI woman and her female friend faced the wrath of cattle traffickers in Gurugram in Haryana. In a shocking incident that took place on September 25, according to the Times of India and hindupost.in, the cow smugglers shot at them and threw a live cow at their moving car on Sohna Road, Gurugram. An FIR was registered at the Sohna City police station in this regard.

According to the sources, Sonia Sharma, a British resident, and her friend Archie Baranwal were going towards Mewat in their car when they spotted a pick-up truck (RJ 32 GA 2303) carrying cattle. The animals were tied and were clearly stuffed into the small vehicle. Surprisingly, there were no rear tyres in the vehicle and yet it was speeding towards Mewat from Gurugram on just the rims.

Mewat in Haryana, it may be mentioned, is a notorious region infamous for cow slaughter. Muslim majority Mewat is notorious for cow smuggling also. As it is close to NCR, there are reports every other week of Mewat gangs sneaking into Delhi and adjoining areas at night and stealing cattle from people’s homes. In one case, smugglers from Mewat even entered the high-security NSG compound in Manesar, Gurugram while trying to escape the law.

Noticing the brutal condition in which the animals were being held, the women signalled the vehicle to stop. However, instead of slowing down, the men opened fire at them. Luckily, the women missed the shot, but they continued to follow the men. Meanwhile, they even informed the police.

As the car still followed them, one of the accused threw a live but tied-up cow at the car. Once again, the women were lucky to miss the assault. However, the animal fell on the road and got injured.

Meanwhile, the assailants probably realized that they couldn’t dodge the women, considering their vehicle was running without tyres. They abandoned the vehicle and fled. Cops recovered two flung animals from the road and four animals from inside the truck in critical condition. The weapon used in firing at women too has been recovered.

Cases of cattle traffickers attacking animal lovers are very common. According to hindupost.com recently, a software engineer and his family and friends were brutally attacked and the women in the group were allegedly molested in Odisha when they tried to intervene on behalf of 500 livestock that were being brutally thrashed while being marched with legs bound with plastic ropes.

Cow smugglers in Bharat operate in well-organized gangs, are well armed and often indulge in fatal attacks on the police, farmers, gau rakshaks and even innocent bystanders who come in their way. In a tragic case from last year, a cow smuggler in Amravati, Maharashtra rammed his truck through a police check-post and crushed a family of three travelling by car while hitting at least 12 cars in a desperate bid to escape police.