‘Cow corridor’ leaves a trail of blood & terror

ALWAR: The picturesque villages and mist-capped mountains on either side of 170-km-long stretch cutting across Alwar and Bharatpur districts do not reflect the problems in the area. The stretch has turned into a “cow corridor” of sorts due to increasing incidents of cattle smuggling and killings by cow vigilantes.

The “cow corridor” has seen three incidents of brutal lynchings and murders, Pehlu Khan, Ummar Khan and Rakbar Khan, all killed by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes.



The “Cow or lynching corridor” begins from Behror in Alwar, the same place where Pehlu Khan was lynched, it moves ahead to the district’s Shahjahanpur, Neemrana, Bhiwadi, Tijara, Kishangarh Bas, Ramgarh area, and from Naogaona to Govindgarh, from here it cuts across to Bharatpur’s Pahari, Jurhera, Kaman, Kaithwara, and Gopalgarh region. From Gopalgarh, smugglers enter into Haryana’s Ferozpur Jhirka area.

According to an official, who had served both the districts, the smugglers have long been using this an easiest way home to Haryana.

The solution to the region’s crime, law and order problem has long evaded police which claimed it is caught in a cross-fire between vigilantes and smugglers. The route, however, is notorious for cattle smuggling as 784 alleged cow smugglers have been arrested in past three years and about 2,300 cows have been rescued, all in the same region.

Alwar and Bharatpur police said that cattle smugglers, mostly from Haryana, pass through the area. Several of them are confronted by self-proclaimed vigilantes who now have their own network of informers ranging from fuel pump attendants, staff at local eateries and shop keepers, who quickly “report” suspicious vehicles to another legion of vigilantes. Most of these vigilantes’ groups consist of youths, who are tasked to carry out the “dirty job”- to trash and beat anyone transporting cows.

The clashes between the smugglers, gau rakshaks and local police have not only increased, but have also become equally deadly. The smugglers now have modified trucks with heavy iron bars right above the bonnet are used as shield to break through police barricading, total 31 police men have been injured in clashes in last three years, as many as nine suffered bullet injuries, a figure which is highest in Rajasthan.

Police officials said that cow smugglers are usually armed with desi kata (country made pistol) and have no inhabitation in firing at them. Sample this, in last three years, smugglers fired or pelted stones 247 times at the local police. “On many occasions where police are attacked, they don’t resister any case, because most of the smugglers are unidentified. Filing a case against unidentified smuggler gives rise to pendency. One need to understand that these are rural police station where staff is already overburden,” the official told TOI on the condition of anonymity.

In 2008, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Mitthun Lal Saini was mowed down by smugglers in Kherli police station area of Alwar.

The reign in cow vigilantes and smugglers, the Rajasthan police in 2016 decided to set-up 12 cow-checkposts, six each in Alwar and Bharatpur. However, due to lack of staff, many of the check posts are lying vacant.