A clash between police and butchers over cow slaughter broke out in south Gujarat town Navasariin the State. Angry group of butchers destroyed a couple of police vehicles, snatched police rifles and four policemen were kept in captivity in Davel village of Navsari district. Rioting that started during Navaratri in Vadodara has now spread to Ahmedabad and Navsari, which became cause of concern for the State administration.
Sources said that a police team had gone to Davel on information about illegal slaughtering of cows and its progeny. But as the police team approached the village, nearly 2,000 villagers armed with stones and other weapons assembled and attacked the police convoy. The windscreens and windowpanes of at least two police vehicles were totally smashed in stone throwing by the people. The unruly crowd snatched away rifles from two policemen and took four policemen with them. While the crowd on its own returned one of the rifles, the police had to mount a lot of pressure on the villagers to recover the other rifle and get the four policemen released. The police had to burst about a dozen teargas shells and later fired two rounds in the air to disperse the violent crowd. later on the police was able to bring situation under control and arrested two in connection with the attack on cops. Nearly 1,200 police personnel have been deployed to maintain peace in the area. The Navsari incident followed a similar attack on the policemen in Shahpur locality in Ahmedabad city on Saturday when the police had gone to nab anti-social elements involved in illegal cow slaughtering.