This week, the Unreported World team investigate a series of
brutal mob killings that have shocked India.
Across the country, Hindu vigilantes have lynched Muslims
over allegations that they've eaten or killed cows,
which Hindus regard as sacred.
Reporter Mirren Gidda visits a country
where eating meat can mean murder.
There are some disturbing images in her report.
I'm in the state of Haryana, close to Delhi.
In most of India, it's now against the law to kill cows or eat beef.
Hindu vigilantes hunt for anyone who breaks these laws.
For them, the cow is a sacred animal
and they'll stop at nothing to protect it.
The Gau Putra Sena, or Son of Cow army,
is one of many Hindu vigilante groups enforcing the ban on beef.
Their leader is Sampat Singh.
Is anyone else carrying a gun?
Have you ever injured anyone using the guns?
HE LAUGHS
Suddenly, Sampat's men bring in a cow that's been hit by a truck.
They're fighting to save her life.
THEY SPEAK IN NATIVE DIALECT
They see what they're doing as a religious duty.
They revere cows as symbols of earth's bounty.
The cow vigilantes just spent two hours treating that cow
and now they're about to drive out
and do what they call cow protection,
looking out for people on the roads who might be smuggling cows.
Sampat takes me out to a highway where his vigilantes
are setting up checkpoints
to catch smugglers transporting cows for slaughter.
Most of the trucks they stop are carrying buffalo,
something that's legal.
Many of the drivers in this legitimate meat trade are Muslims.
The checkpoints can bring them into confrontation
with the Hindu vigilantes.
Some of Sampat's men claim they've been shot at.
One man shows me a bullet wound.
While his men get to work, Sampat Singh invites me
back to his home for dinner.
What gives you the right to stop the trucks
and give the driver to the police and take the cows away from him?
Sampat is a devout Hindu.
He tells me that he believes in reincarnation
and that the purpose of his current life is to protect cows.
There's a call from the checkpoint.
One of Sampat's informers thinks he's found a smuggler
preparing to move some cattle.
Like cows, bulls are regarded as sacred.
Sampat heads out to rejoin his men.
He won't let us go with him.
DISTRESSED CRIES
ANGRY SHOUTS
These pictures show cow vigilantes in action.
Since 2015, at least 30 people have died in vigilante attacks.
Nine this year.
Most weeks, there's a new incident.
DISTRESSED CRIES
Across India, religious attacks are increasing.
I'm on the trail of one of these murders.
The victim was a 16-year-old Muslim boy killed by a Hindu mob
on a train.
Junaid Khan was travelling home with his two brothers.
His age, and the religious nature of the attack, have sparked outrage.
Junaid's family live in a poor neighbourhood outside the capital.
His mum wants to tell me what happened.
About 20 passengers started attacking Junaid.
MUSLIM CALL TO PRAYER
Junaid's brother Hashim has returned home from hospital.
He was also on the train.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the leader
of the Hindu nationalist BJP party, many whose his supporters believe
India should be a nation governed by the values of the Hindu religion.
Although Prime Minister Modi condemns religious attacks,
his critics allege that those behind them are often supporters
of his party.
A group of Muslim victims of Hindu violence has come
to the Student Islamic Organisation in Delhi seeking help.
Muslims make up about 15% of India's population.
They're meeting the organisation's leader, Nahas Mala.
He's asked the lawyer to mount a Supreme Court case
to seek compensation for the victims.
They give their testimonies.
Junaid's mum Saira is also here to talk about his murder on the train.
Nahas Mala is paying for a lawyer to help on the case.
Saira's worried a key witness won't appear.
She believes the witness is frightened of also being attacked.
DRUMS, CHANTING
Many Hindus who don't support the BJP's policies
are demanding the government of Prime Minister Modi
cracks down on religious violence.
Not In My Name is a protest movement founded by Saba Dewan, a film-maker.
Bangalore is on,
and Mumbai is on
and Kolkata is on.
There is a lot of talk about the Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation.
And a Hindu Rashtra is completely antithetical to the idea
of a democratic, secular republic that is India.
Do you think that idea of a Hindu Rashtra
has support from the government itself?
The government is formed of the BJP, the Bharatiya Janata Party,
which ascribes to the ideology of Hindu nationalism,
or Hindutva.
And Hindutva equates being Hindu with being Indian.
We're in the rural area of Nuh, Haryana, and I'm on my way to meet
a family who's got first-hand experience of the cow vigilantes.
This is the house of Pehlu Khan, a Muslim dairy farmer who lived here
with his two sons, his widowed sister and blind mother.
His sister Fasra tells me he bought two dairy cows
so the family could have fresh milk.
A group of Hindu vigilantes accused him of taking them for meat.
He died two days later.
After the attack a senior politician in the BJP condemned
what had happened, but praised the vigilantes for protecting cows.
Police charged seven people with Pehlu Khan's murder.
Five have been bailed.
SHE SINGS
It's been four months since Pehlu Khan died
and as you can see, the family is still in a lot of grief,
and being in there was so incredibly emotional, and their loss and their
devastation is just heartbreaking to listen to and to witness.
Pehlu Khan's family live in fear of further attacks
because they still keep two dairy cows.
India doesn't have an official state religion,
something that militant Hindus wants to change.
They regard Muslims as outsiders who aren't true Indians.
I've headed back to Haryana to see the vigilante leader,
Sampat Singh.
We've arranged to meet in a place he calls the war room,
his base for vigilante operations.
He's had an update from his informer on the suspected cow smuggler.
Sampat and his men head out in search of the smuggler.
We drive for 45 minutes to a checkpoint on the busy
Narwana-Chowk Road, which Sampat thinks the smuggler will use.
We're told not to film it
but at the checkpoint there's a police car.
The officers do nothing to stop the vigilantes' work.
Down the road the vigilantes have pulled in a truck
that failed to stop.
They think they may have found the smuggler.
They're buffaloes.
The vigilantes are disappointed the truck isn't smuggling the cows
their informant's telling them about.
I want to find out what the truck drivers think
about the vigilante checkpoints, so we go to the
Ghazipur buffalo market, one of the largest in northern India.
Most of the drivers and workers here are Muslim.
There's no sign of any cows, but the men are nervous.
They're frightened publicity will increase the chances of Hindu
militants targeting the market.
We're told we need to go.
I can't believe that it's this controversial to film
in a meat market. What they're doing is completely legal,
but it shows how terrified they are that they wanted us out instantly.
I've arranged to meet the man who speaks for India's
buffalo meat importers, most of whom are Muslim.
Fauzan Alavi says a legitimate industry worth $5 billion a year
is being threatened by the actions of the vigilantes.
I'm catching up with Saira, the mother of Junaid,
the Muslim boy murdered on the train.
I discover that four of the six men arrested in connection
with her son's death are out on bail.
The police have dropped the charges of murder and are only accusing them
of offences linked to religious violence.
Her lawyer says this is because of their political connections.
The police deny this.
Saira blames the government of Prime Minister Modi for the violence
and she's afraid that because the police have released
some of the suspects on bail, the culprits may eventually go free.
At his wife's sari shop, I meet up with Sampat Singh,
the leader of the vigilante group.
Hello.
I want to ask Sampat about the allegations I've heard.
He dismisses them, saying the media is unfairly portraying vigilantes
as thugs rather than devout Hindus.
With every mob killing, the victim does tend to be Muslim.
Do you think that's an inaccurate portrayal by the media?
Even though he leads a government that relies on Hindu nationalist
support, Prime Minister Modi recently again condemned the rise
in religious violence and said killing to protect cows was wrong.
The same day, a Hindu mob of 100 people lynched a Muslim man
for allegedly carrying beef in his car.
Before I leave India,
I'm meeting up with Junaid's brother Hashim one last time.
He's frightened now that some of the men suspected
of killing his brother are out on bail.
He knows his testimony is vital to the case against them.
His brother's alleged killers are due to appear in court
in a few months' time.
Subtitles by Ericsson