MANSA: Tension prevailed in Joga village of Mansa district on Sunday after hundreds of infuriated villagers stormed into a factory, burnt down goods, set a vehicle on fire and damaged property after they came to know that cows were being slaughtered there.
Curfew was clamped to restrain the enraged crowd but people kept defying the prohibitory orders and police had to resort to a lathicharge to control the unruly mob. Four people were injured in the lathicharge and police arrested factory owners Ajaib Singh, Narinder Singh, and Mewa Singh on charges of hurting the religious sentiments of people and cruelty to animals under the Cow Protection Act.
Punjab government suspended Mansa district SSP Sukhdev Singh Chahal for dereliction of duty and imposed a curfew in the village. Villagers alleged that for sometime now cows were being slaughtered in the factory. The agitated crowd damaged the factory and vandalized the houses of the factory owners.
The factory supplies bone powder for use in the production of pharmaceutical and edible grade gelatin.
Joga resident Sukhwinder Dass, who was working in the fields around Saturday midnight, said that he saw a large number of cows being taken to the factory in a canter and then heard them mooing in pain. "I told the villagers about cows being transported to the factory with the suspected intention of killing them and when we reached the factory in the wee hours of Sunday we found that many cows had been killed," he said.
IG Nirmal Singh said, "A case for hurting religious sentiments, cruelty to animals has been registered against the factory owners, who have been arrested." The curfew had not been lifted till the filing of this report. Mansa DC Amit Dhaka and MLA Prem Mittal, who visited the tension spot, have assured stern action.
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