Gujarat: Muslim cattle trader charred to death, family alleges attack by cow vigilantes

A cattle trader from Ahmedabad belonging to the minority community has been beaten to death by cow vigilantes, alleged his family members. However, the local police have described the incident as an accident.

The deceased, Mohammad Bhura, 32, left home on the morning of April 22 with his friend Rafiq Syed for some personal work. He had taken a day off from work to spend a day with his friends. However, Bhura never returned home.

Next morning, Bhura’s charred body was found in his car near the Narmada canal in Santej village (Gandhinagar district) while 23-year-old Rafiq was found unconscious with severe injuries on the road near the burnt car.

Passersby called an ambulance and the duo was rushed to Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. Bhura, who was burnt beyond recognition, was declared dead while Rafiq is still undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and is in a critical condition. Doctors attending to him said that he had suffered severe injuries.

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Police file 'accident' case

Interestingly, the Santej police who reached the spot after being informed by locals promptly lodged an FIR of ‘accidental death’.

“Bhura and Rafiq were travelling through Santej and Vayana villages when their car allegedly caught fire after hitting an object,” stated the FIR.

“Preliminary findings suggest that the fatal road accident caused the fire and the narrow lane may have trapped the occupants inside,” SR Muchhal, Inspector of Police, Santej told The Federal.

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Post-mortem report

However, contrary to the police’s claim, the post-mortem report indicated that there were injuries on the body, inconsistent with the police’s version of how the incident might have unfolded.

“Microscopic analysis of tissue samples suggests sustained multiple blunt injuries including tramline contusion (an injury in which the sub-surface tissue is injured but the skin is not broken), multiple abrasions on the chest and right arm, and a fracture in the skull that are ante mortem in nature,” stated the post-mortem report.

Moreover, Rafiq’s family pointed out that the fact there were trauma injuries but no burn injuries on his body further contradicts the police’s version that the car went up in flames after colliding with a bigger vehicle.

“The doctor at the Sola Civil Hospital told us that Rafiq had trauma injuries from being thrashed brutally. He has internal bleeding in his stomach and head and multiple fractures. But no burn injuries. If he was trapped in the car when it had caught fire and managed to escape, he should have some burn injuries,” says Rasseda Syyed, Rafiq's wife .

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'Attacked by vigilantes'

Meanwhile, Bhura’s family alleged that his death was not an accident. Instead, he was beaten to death by cow vigilantes who had been threatening him for the past week.

“This was no accident. My brother was thrashed first and then tied to the car and set ablaze. His friend Rafiq has visible signs of assault but not burns,” says Muqeem, younger brother of Bhura.

“My brother was being threatened and extorted by local cow vigilantes. They demand money from cattle traders to allow us to run our business peacefully. Just last week he (Bhura) paid ₹2,000 to avoid trouble. Yet they targetted him,” added Muqeem who has filed a separate complaint demanding a full investigation and review of CCTV footage along the route taken by his brother and his friend.

The police, however, is yet to file a fresh FIR following the post mortem report or launch an investigation into the incident.

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'Meat traders targetted'

Local minority rights activists claimed that Bhura’s death was not an isolated incident but part of a larger design of cow vigilantes targetting those involved in meat trading.

“Mohammed Bhura was attacked because he belongs to the Qureshi community who are traditionally butchers and are in the trade of cattle trading or meat selling. This community has been a soft target of the gau rakshaks. The government machinery always supports the gau rakshaks,” said Asim Sheikh, a minority rights activist based in Ahmedabad and a member of the AIMIM party.

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Another victim in Jan

In a similar incident in January 2025, Abdul Raza Qureshi, 21, was found lying by the side of the highway connecting Sabarkantha and Ahmedabad with his vehicle overturned about 100 metres away.

“I will never forget that ill-fated day. I was waiting for a call from Abdul on January 12, his birthday. I had called him earlier but he was transporting meat from Sabarkantha to Khanpur meat market in Ahmedabad,” said 43-year-old Sajid, Abdul’s uncle.

“Instead, I got a call from his mother (my sister). She told me there had been an accident. I rushed to their house. I froze when I saw Abdul’s body lying on the floor. His face was blackish blue, his fingers were all broken and twisted in different directions. He was missing a few teeth and had injury marks all over his body,” added Sajid.

Abdul’s family alleged that he was another victim of cow vigilantes whose death was claimed to be an accident by the local police.

Questioning the police’s claim, Sajid asked if Abdul had died in an accident, then how come there were no signs of damages on the lorry. He also said that the 10 kg of goat meat that Abdul was carrying was missing.

“We are under constant threat from the cow vigilantes and we pay them weekly to leave us alone. That week we couldn’t pay the local gau rakshaks since we hadn’t had any sale for a month. I keep thinking whether they killed Abdul because we did not pay on time. I wish I had borrowed the money from somewhere and paid them. Abdul would have been alive today,” said Sajid as his voice choked up.

Noticeably, Abdul’s post mortem report suggested that he had injury marks consistent with being beaten with something thin and long along with shoe marks on his back.

“The police bluntly refused to investigate further into the death of Abdul. They were confident that it was an accident. They even refused to file my complaint,” adds Sajid.

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Similar incident last year

In a similar incident in September 2024, another meat seller Razzak Qureshi, 39, was found dead on the highway between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. He was the sole bread-earner of his family of seven and was on his way to meet his eldest daughter who had shifted to Siddpur in Banaskantha after marriage.

Gandhinagar police filed a case of accidental death without any investigation even though Razzak was found in a pool of blood with stab wounds.

“We asked the police how the accident was caused when we went to receive his body. The police told us the motorcycle he was riding might have hit a bigger vehicle like a truck,” Danish, Razzak’s son-in-law, told The Federal.

“We are not rich people. We can’t afford to fight a case in court. However, we had informed the police that he (Razzak) had been threatened multiple times and asked to shut down his meat shop. But the police did not seem to take us seriously,” he added.

Another case in Banaskantha

Another cattle trader Misri Khan, 43, was attacked by cow vigilantes and beaten to death while his friend Hussain Khan managed to escape unhurt.

The Banaskantha police filed an FIR against five people on the basis of the complaint filed by Khan, an eyewitness. The five were charged under sections 149 (unlawful assembly), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

However, the police maintained that it was not a case of mob lynching.

“This incident is not a mob lynching. For an incident to be considered a mob lynching, it would need to have a communal aspect. It appears that the accused did not intend to murder but rather wanted to intimidate the deceased,” the then Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Akshayraj Makwana had said.

However, Akhil Raj, one of the five accused in the case and self-proclaimed cow vigilante, posted a video of the incident on social media claiming that whatever he did was for the sake of gau mata and he won’t hesitate to kill anyone else who hurts gau mata.

In the video dated May 22, 2024, he can be seen chasing a truck with a group of ten or fifteen others. The recording shows the group ramming the truck with two jeeps from two sides. As the truck stops, the group of men are seen jumping out of their vehicle with rods and sticks.

They shatter the truck's windshield and forcibly take out the driver (Misri Khan) while threatening them and hurling communal abuses. The video also shows the presence of a highway traffic policeman at the scene who doesn’t intervene.

The Banaskantha police, however, did not investigate further into the matter.

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Vigilantes justify action

In a similar modus operandi, Neha Patel, the head of the Gujarat Gau Rakshak Dal, posted a video of the incident coinciding with the time and date of Mohammed Bhura’s death claiming that ‘her boys were out for an operation on the day and it was a successful one.”

“We are committed to protect gau mata. We work day and night for that purpose and we have a strict rule of not resorting to violence. But sometimes my boys get emotional. After all, they are Hindu men who can’t tolerate any harm to gau mata,” says Neha Patel who has 17 FIRs against her along with seven charges of murder.