Why did the clash take place?

The clash took place at Kithwari overbridge in Palwal after a group alleged that trucks were transporting cow meat illegally.

According to police, after claims that two trucks laden with beef had passed through the area, a third one was intercepted by some people who alleged that it was carrying the meat to Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.

Then what happened?

The police intervened, but they were pelted with with stones by the unruly crowd, which also damaged the truck.

Police fired in the air and resorted to a lathicharge and the firing of teargas shells to control the mob.

The truck driver, identified as one Sajid, was arrested and a case registered against him, police said.

Meanwhile, the Haryana chief minister ordered an inquiry into the matter, saying that anybody found to be guilty will not be spared.

So was it beef?

The local police said that they confiscated the truck. And the consignment, which locals claimed was beef, has been buried.

“The situation is normal now,” the superintendent of police said, addin that a sample of the meat has been sent for testing.

Similar beef-related incidents in the past

On September 28, a 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched and his son Danish (22) was brutally beaten up as ‘punishment’ for allegedly eating beef and ‘storing it’ for later consumption in Dadri’s Bishara village.

A class 10th student became a victim of murderous assault by goons who attacked the truck he was accompanying, in Udhampur district of Jammu region on October 9. Zahid had suffered over 60 per cent burns and later succumbed to his injuries.

In Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, a truck driver, Noman, was beaten to death for allegedly smuggling cattle. Noman was found critically injured inside his truck when the police saw him on Wednesday, October 14. The incident was reported by the man’s relative.