While the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Centre and six states, including Uttar Pradesh, asking them why cow vigilante groups should not be banned to ensure peace and harmony, a group of Shia Muslims from Lucknow has come forward with an idea of forming its own ‘Gau Raksha Dal’ (cow protection squad), which would begin in UP and gradually go national, vowing to eliminate cow slaughter and make India ‘beef-free’ within a year. “Our sole aim is to dissuade the beef eaters as consumption of cow meat is an unhealthy practice,” says Gau Raksha Dal president Shamil Shamsi, who, since 2014, has been reaching out to the people of the minority community in rural areas and telling them how ‘hadith’ (sayings of Prophet Mohammad) forbade beef consumption.

The Shia youths, who launched Gau Raksha Dal in Uttar Pradesh, is hopeful of becoming a 20,000-member strong outfit in the state soon..................Read more

Source: The New Indian Express