[DAWN] Eight men have been nabbedPlease don't kill me!
for violently ambushing a government convoy transporting cows in northwest India, police said Tuesday, the latest assault by vigilantes claiming to protect the sacred animal.
A mob of about 200 Hindu hardliners Sunday blocked the convoy of trucks in Rajasthan state as government officials escorted 80 cows and calves to a state-run breeding programme in India's south.
They attacked the officials after accusing them of taking the cows to a slaughterhouse, local police chief Gagandeep Singla told AFP.
"They stopped the trucks on the pretext of checking documents and then attacked them with sticks and damaged the trucks," he said, adding the mob tried to set the vehicles ablaze.
More than 50 vigilantes have been identified and charged with assaulting public officials, he added. One of those targeted in the 30-minute attack sustained serious head injuries.
Hindus, the majority in India, consider cows sacred and killing the beasts is illegal in many states, with life sentences imposed in some jurisdictions.