Right Wing Attack on Meat Trade Intensifies in BJP Ruled States

Taking a cue from UP’s BJP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, MP and Chhattisgarh too have launched a drive targeting illegal slaughter houses and unlicensed meat shops in their respective states, according to several news reports.

Photo credit: Reuters

Even as the Shiv Sena leadership in Maharashtra insists it is opposed to such action, Shiv Sainiks along with other Hindutva organisations forcibly shutdown 500 meat shops in Gurgaon, Haryana yesterday.

Meanwhile, the protesters in Sambhal town of UP resorted to violence on Wednesday to chase away the police, the Urdu daily, Inquilab, reports.

According to the Inquilab, the civic administration has sealed or shut down three shops in Hardwar (UP), 11 in Raipur (MP), one in Indore and numerous shops across Haryana.
The crackdown has affected the supply of meat across several states and many hotels have either shut down or are now serving only vegetarian food.

The Times of India has reported that over 15,000 students living in hostels in Aligarh Muslim University have had to go without meat as only vegetarian food is being served in the mess for the past few days.

Inquilab reports that several persons were injured in a clash between the police and Muslim protesters yesterday. The protesters resorted to heavy stone pelting forcing the police to flee from the spot.

The Urdu daily reports that on receiving news that two bullocks had been brought to the Deep Sarai locality in Sambhal for illegal slaughter, the police reached the spot and took away the cattle. Later the same afternoon, two policemen returned to the locality, roughed up two Muslim youth and attempted to arrest them.

On this agitated local Muslims chased away the two policemen and then resorted to heavy stone pelting when the latter returned with reinforcement. The policemen were forced to run away from the area. Thereafter, the police returned once again and arrested several people.

According to Inquilab a section of the meat traders are planning to approach the courts with their concern but it is feared that before then the police and the civic administration would have succeeded in forcing closures of slaughter houses and retail shops.

On Wednesday, the local administration called upon the traders and retail shopkeepers to call of their strike but to no avail.