Cow smugglers fire at cops in Alwar, escape

ALWAR: In yet another case of transporting cows illegally, the Bhiwadi police in Alwar courted fire from cow smugglers who opened fire on the police team chasing them during early hours on Wednesday.

While the smugglers managed to escape under the cover of darkness, police managed to rescue five cows which were being illegally transported for slaughter.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from Phool Bagh police station near Bhiwadi began chasing a vehicle with bovines. "Suddenly, unidentified persons in the vehicle opened fire. The exchange of fire continued for almost 40 minutes and, finally, some six cow smugglers managed to flee, leaving behind the vehicle carrying the cows," said a senior police officer from Alwar.

Police said that at least 60 rounds were fired by the assailants. "Thankfully, none of our men were injured since they were fired to prevent us from chasing them," said an officer.

When contacted, sub-inspector of Phool Bagh police station Hans Raj said, "The investigation suggested that all the five cows were stolen from Dharuhera (Haryana) on September 15. A case has already been registered in this regard at Dharuhera police station. We have also identified the smugglers who opened the fire on our team. The accused have been identified as Rahul, Wasim, Jabba, Leelu, Idris and Kasam. All of them are already accused in similar cases in Faridabad, Dharuheda and Nooh areas of Harayana."

This is not the first instance when the cops have been caught on the wrong foot. Similar incidents have been reported from districts such as Bharatpur and Alwar, which are close to border states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

"We have set up 'chowkis' and deployed patrolling teams. We have also written to the police headquarters to increase manpower at night and provide arms," said a senior police officer of Bharatpur district on condition of anonymity.