Indian police arrest three after man killed for possessing beef

Naseem Qureshi, 56, died earlier this week after being attacked by a mob on suspicion of carrying beef.

Police in India have arrested three men in the eastern state of Bihar in connection with the death of a Muslim man who was attacked for being suspected of transporting beef, a police official said.

The victim, Naseem Qureshi, 56, died earlier this week after being attacked by a mob on suspicion of transporting beef, the sale and consumption of which has been restricted by local governments in some parts of the country.

According to a police statement in court, Qureshi was surrounded and attacked by more than 20 people.

The police intervened, but according to the statement he died on the way to the hospital.

Ramchandra Tiwari, chief of Rasulpur police station in Bihar, where the crime took place, told Reuters news agency by telephone on Saturday that three people had been arrested.

Cows are sacred in Hinduism and there have been regular attacks against those accused of killing them for meat or leather, mainly people from the Muslim minority or those from the lower echelons of India’s ancient caste system.

Hardline Hindu groups are demanding a complete ban on cow slaughter across India.

Self-proclaimed Hindu cow vigilante groups have begun self-enforcing the law since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014.

Bihar is currently ruled by a regional party and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is in the opposition.