Communal tension, protests after Cow slaughtered in Malerkotla, Punjab to intimidate Hindu Sentiments

Tension gripped Malerkotla after the recovery of cow body parts last night. The incident has increased the problems of local authorities, who are already on their toes as the town has reported a high number of COVID patients and deaths.

Various Hindu organisations blocked the Sangrur-Ludhiana road on Wednesday night while protests were being held at the Truck Union Chowk on Sangrur-Ludhiana road since Thursday morning.

“We had lifted our protest in the morning but the cops are not serious about arresting the accused. Some miscreants want to create communal tension here and they must be arrested immediately. We have given the police 48 hours to take action. If they fail, we will restart our protest,” said Devinder Singla, BJP Mandal-2 president of Malerkotla.

The leaders of the Vishav Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and other local Hindu organisations also joined the protest.

Manjit Singh Brar, Malerkotla SP, said they had been conducting thorough investigations and would arrest the accused at the earliest. “We have registered a case against unidentified persons and taking all steps to identify them,” he added.

With almost no media coverage, the attempt to destroy the harmony between religion is being given more support as the police have not yet identified or arrested any of the culprits. A similar incident took place in 2014 and several others that have not been in the limelight.

When reported by a Punjab’s local news agency, the reactions on social media by several Hinduphobic netizens were unbelievable.

Considering the fact that the religious population in the Malerkotla region of Punjab has over 70% Muslim population and less than 18% Hindu population, these instances have been forced upon and are a part of their daily lives for the Hindu minority living in that area.