Ghaziabad: A contractor authorised by the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation to dispose of animal carcasses and two of his employees were attacked on Monday night by suspected cow vigilantes who accused them of slaughtering cows. Two of the contractor’s employees suffered injuries to the head and legs during the attack on them on Vijay Nagar.The contractor’s car and a pick-up van carrying 10-15 buffalo carcasses were damaged. Police are yet to make any arrests.The contractor, Mahesh Kumar, said he had been disposing of animal carcasses for the past 25 years, but “the situation has never been this bad”. He said the two employees had since refused to work for him as they feared for their lives. Mahesh said the mob was shouting slogans and could have lynched them had a police team not arrived. The incident comes weeks after a similar attack by alleged cow vigilantes had killed a police officer in Bulandshahr. Such is the palpable fear among people transporting cattle that a retired BSNL official had recently sought police protection to ferry two cows that he owned to his hometown.An FIR has been registered against a Behrampur resident believed to have led the mob on Monday, Pradeep Kumar Sain, and 25-30 unidentified persons for rioting and assaulting people.Mahesh said he and his relative, Mahendra Kumar, had permission from the local civic body to lift animal carcasses and dispose them of in a plant in Sajwan Nagar. “We get licences for five years. The last time it was renewed was in 2016. On Monday evening, my employee Mursaleen and I were in a car while two others, Raju and Bhagwan Das, were in the pick-van carrying 10-15 buffalo carcasses. The mob was already outside the plant and raising slogans when we reached there,” he said. “They pounced on us as soon as we reached the spot. Mursaleen and I were able to find cover, but the other two were not that lucky. People in the mob were brandishing wooden sticks, rods and country-made pistols and thrashed them mercilessly,” Mahesh added.The contractor and his employees said they were planning to change profession. “It is increasingly becoming difficult for us to carry on like this. We will have to look for other jobs if attacks such as this continue,” he said.Sub-inspector Dhruv Narayan Singh, who is investigating the case, said the attack was aimed at flaring up communal tension in the area. “Pradeep and his aides are yet to be arrested,” he added.

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