Uttar Pradesh police in Bareilly district has been running an aggressive campaign against cow smugglers. The Police has arrested 120 people in connection with cow smuggling cases. Out of 120 accused, 110 cow slaughterers have been arrested in preventive action and 10 accused in cow slaughter cases.

Bareilly Police SP Rural Rajkumar Aggarwal said, “We have arrested criminals involved in cow slaughter by running a campaign in all 29 police stations of the district, in which 110 cow slaughterers have been arrested in preventive action and 10 accused in cow slaughter cases.”

Aggarwal further said that the law and order situation has deteriorated due to the increasing cow slaughter cases in the district.

“The incidents of cow slaughter have increased in Bareilly for the last several days. Because of this, there was tremendous resentment in Hindu organizations. Many times the situation of law and order also deteriorated. After this, the SSP gave strict instructions to all the station in-charges,” he added.

Propagandists start calling this an ‘action against Muslims‘

As expected, a section of society and media has started crying foul on this issue. These people have started calling this as an ‘anti-Muslim campaign’. As most of the arrested criminals are Muslims, these people are trying to create a narrative that Uttar Pradesh government is acting in a biased manner.

These extremists and pro-Islamist handles are batting for hardened criminals who are destroying the rural economy, and have connections to other dangerous mafias including Islamic terrorists. These cattle smugglers use highways in trans-Ganga area as their transit route to transport their trucks and containers loaded with cattle to West Bengal, Bihar and even nearby districts for slaughter.

There is a complete ecosystem, which works in tandem to ensure cows are smuggled without any issue. Police has confirmed that many locals in the trans-Ganga area are taking cash in return for guiding the trucks to escape police checking and helping them pass through the route undetected.

We have seen many incidents where these cow smugglers have opened fire on the policemen. On February 14, three cow smugglers opened fire at Bareilly police after they tried to stop them during a routine foot patrolling and night march. The night patrol team of Bithri Chainpur police station area of Bareilly stopped 3 suspicious persons who were spotted dragging a cow with them. On being stopped by the police for checking, the three criminals started firing at the police.

One such handle giving an inflammatory spin to the law & order issue is HindutvaWatch, a propaganda portal run by Kashmiri Muslim ‘journalist’ Raqib Hameed Naik from America. This portal was recently covered glowingly by Washington Post journalist Pranshu Verma in a piece titled “Tracking rising religious hatred in India, from half a world away“

The Washington Post piece also quotes known Islamic supremacists, Khaled Beydoun and Rana Ayyub, who speak approvingly about HindutvaWatch.