[DAWN] Indian police are often complicit in killings carried out by cow vigilante groups, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, calling on authorities to take tougher action to halt lynchings.The slaughter of cows ‐ revered by Hindus ‐ is a powder-keg issue in secular India. Men accused of killing or trading in cattle have increasingly been targeted since the Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014.
Critics have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing party of pandering to fringe groups to win votes.
Read: Holy cows and Hindu crusaders cloud Modi's Indian reform drive
"Calls for cow protection may have started out as a way to attract Hindu votes, but it has transformed into a free pass for mobs to violently attack and kill minority group members," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"Indian authorities should stop egging on or justifying these attacks, blaming victims, or protecting the culprits," Ganguly said.
At least 44 people were killed in such attacks between May 2015 and December last year, the report said.
Thirty-six of the dead were Moslems and in almost all cases, police initially stalled investigations, ignored procedures, or were complicit in the killings and cover-ups, HRW alleged.