A Muslim man has died after he was attacked by hundreds of vigilantes while transporting cows in India.
The attack comes as tensions in India have been rising over the slaughter of cows, animals which Hindus consider sacred.
No arrests have been made, but police said they had registered a murder case over the death of Pehlu Khan, 55, ’in hospital on Monday, two days after a mob attacked his cattle lorry on a motorway in Alwar in Rajasthan.
Six more people were injured when the vehicle was attacked by about 200 Hindu vigilantes, whom police are trying to identify.
But police also said they were preparing a case against the survivors of the attack, whom they suspect of trying to smuggle the cattle across state borders.
Cows are considered sacred in predominantly Hindu India, where squads of vigilantes roam highways inspecting livestock lorries for any trace of the animal.
Slaughtering cows is illegal in many Indian states and some also require a licence for transporting them across state borders.
Alwar police chief Rahul Prakash said the victim and his associates were returning to their home state of Haryana when the mob intercepted their vehicle.
Mr Prakash said the six others have now been discharged from hospital, adding that an examination would determine the cause of Khan’s death.
"We are yet to receive the postmortem report but he had multiple rib fractures," he said.
Another officer, Ramesh Chand Sinsinwar, who is leading the investigation into the attack, said police were preparing a case against the survivors.
"They were carrying eight bovines in the mini lorry without permission. We will file a case against the survivors after concluding our investigations," he said.
Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria said both sides were to blame for the incident.
"It is illegal to transport cows, but people ignore it and cow protectors are trying to stop such people from trafficking them," he said.
Ten Muslim men have been killed in similar incidents across the country in the last two years by Hindu mobs who suspected them of eating beef or smuggling cows.
In 2015, a Muslim man was lynched by his neighbours following rumours that he had slaughtered a cow. Police later said the meat was mutton.
Last month, a hotel manager was beaten by a mob and his restaurant sealed in Jaipur after Hindu vigilantes accused him of serving beef.
Critics said the vigilantes have been emboldened by the election in 2014 of prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Last year, Mr Modi criticised the cow-protection vigilantes and urged a crackdown against groups using religion as a cover for committing crimes.
But in March he appointed a right-wing Hindu priest to head the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, which is also home to much of the country’s meat industry.
Shortly after Yogi Adityanath was sworn in, police began closing down butcher shops, bringing much of the industry to a halt. Gaba helps to dampen fear or anxiety, which happens when neurons are over-stimulated.

Source: The National