What was our son's crime, victim's parents ask cops

"My son works really hard. He was brutally thrashed and all his ribs are broken. What gives them to right to attack my son? He was just transporting buffaloes," said Tayib, the father of Kamil, who was thrashed in Kalkaji by a mob comprising members of an animal welfare group People for Animals (PFA).

Meanwhile, on Monday, police arrested one of the attackers, Shashank Sharma (32), who claims to be a PFA member. Other accused in the attack have also been asked to join the probe.

"The accused has been arrested under sections 323, 341 and 334 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)", said Romil Baaniya, DCP (South East).

The attack is the latest in cow vigilante-related violence, which have been on the rise in Northern India's rural belt.

The mob had on Saturday night stopped a truck carrying fourteen buffaloes, tightly packed in two rows, and went on to assault the driver, Rizwan.

When two cleaners, Kamil and Ashu, tried to intervene, they were thrashed as well.

After seeing Kamil's battered body, his mother Wakila, who lives in Haryana's Pataudi district, stopped eating.

"She has been crying for the past 28 hours, barely able to sleep thinking about Kamil. She has not eaten anything since the incident. When I got to meet Kamil, I could not hold back my tears. We both broke down," Tayib told Millennium Post. Kamil had earlier told his parents not to worry about his condition, but he later started having severe chest pain.

His parents are now claiming that the internal injuries have taken a toll on their son's health.

After the attack was reported, the South East district police, instead of taking action against the attackers, arrested all three victims, on the basis of the FIR filed by PFA.

The trio was booked for mischief by killing or maiming cattle and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The police later let them go after they got bail.

"We have a small business and have been suffering losses. He used to procure and sell buffaloes at Ghazipur market to licensed vendors. Is that a crime?" asked Tayib.

Speaking on the issue, a local councillor from Patuadi, Mohammad Zahid, said: "This is an attack on humanity. Why would someone attack people transporting cattle? I have met all the victims and they are in a bad condition. Wakila is also in a bad condition."

Details of the incident have just started coming to light, as many eyewitnesses took to social media to narrate accounts of the incident. One of them, Khaliza, told this paper: "That night, there was no law and order. A mob was thrashing them and the police was clearing the traffic instead of looking after the safety of the three men. For the first time in my life, I felt unsafe despite the police presence," she said.