*SRINAGAR: *Indian police said Thursday they were probing a suspected freshcase of a Muslim man being killed by Hindu cow vigilantes.
Cows are revered by Hindus and according to Human Rights Watch some 44people died in cow-related violence by Hindu vigilantes between May 2015and December last year.
Police said that a group of Muslim men transporting horses became involvedin an altercation in a remote mountainous area of Indian-occupied Kashmirbefore dawn.
Nayeem Ahmed Shah, thought to be 50, was shot in the head and died on thespot, police said, while another man Yasin Hussain accompanying him wasinjured.
The attackers fled the scene after the firing, Hussain told reporters.
“We are investigating the angle of cow vigilantism,” inspector general ofpolice for the region, M K Sinha said, adding seven suspects were takeninto custody for questioning.
Angry locals, who say the shooting was carried out by Hindu vigilantes,protested and threw stones at police and damaged several vehicles,demanding the attackers be handedover to them.
Police fired tear gas before authorities imposed a curfew in the area anddeployed hundreds of government forces personnel to prevent religiousclashes and the violence from spreading.
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Hindus consider cows sacred and their slaughter is banned across much ofIndia, including occupied Kashmir.
But beef is openly sold across many parts of the state where resentmentagainst Indian rule is widespread.
Critics say that extremists have been emboldened by the Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party coming to power nationally in 2014 under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.
In 2017 his government tried to ban the cattle trade for slaughternationwide, only for it to be rejected by the Supreme Court.
Modi, 68, is running for a second term in elections that end on Sunday withresults due four days later. – APP / AFP