A Muslim cattle trader has been beaten to death allegedly by cow vigilantes in BJP-ruled Karnataka, weeks after a state minister described the May 10 Assembly elections as a “battle between cow protectors and cow slaughterers”.

Idrees Pasha, 38, was on Saturday morning found dead on a roadside in Sathanur village of Ramanagara district, about 150km from Bangalore, local police said.

The police, who have registered a murder case, said a group of five vigilantes had allegedly stopped Pasha’s cattle-laden truck in Sathanur on Friday night and assaulted its three occupants.

Syed Zaheer, one of Pasha’s two companions who survived the alleged attack, said the vigilantes refused to let the truck go even after Pasha told them he had papers to prove he had bought the animals at a cattle market. He said the assailants asked the trio to “go to Pakistan”.

Zaheer has in the FIR named the leader of the attackers as Puneet Kerehalli, a well-known local cow vigilante, police sources said. All five are in hiding.

According to Zaheer, the truck had left Mandya around 9pm on Friday with the cattle. It was intercepted by the vigilantes some 130km away in Sathanur, around 11.40pm.

The other survivor has been identified as Irfan. The truck is in police custody.

The discovery of Pasha’s body led to local people blocking the road and demanding immediate arrests.

The accused have been booked on charges of murder, wrongful restraint, and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace.

The incident comes at a time the RSS-BJP has been accused of trying to polarise voters ahead of the state polls, with its leaders making incendiary comments and highlighting divisive issues such as “love jihad”, conversions, and a ban on Muslim vendors at temple festivals.

In February-end, state animal husbandry minister Prabhu Chavan had declared: “This election is a battle between cow protectors and cow slaughterers…. The Congress and its leaders are more interested in slaughtering our cows and culture.”

While attacks by cow vigilantes on people buying, selling or transporting cattle have been concentrated in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, they have been witnessed in other parts of Karnataka too.

Such vigilantism has received a boost with the state government enacting a stringent cattle slaughter law, first as an ordinance and later as an act, since 2020.

The earlier 1964 law prohibited the slaughter of cows, she buffaloes and calves of both species and either gender. But the new law bans the slaughter of oxen and bulls as well, while allowing the slaughter of buffaloes of both genders if certified as at least 15 years old.

The new law prescribes jail terms of three to seven years and a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh, or both, for a first offence, and jail terms of up to seven years and a fine between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, or both, for any subsequent offence. The now-repealed old law prescribed jail terms of up to six months, a fine of up to Rs 1,000, or both.

The Congress has promised to repeal the new law if elected to power.