Don't give communal colour to lynchings: Union Minority Affairs Minister

New Delhi: Incidents of lynching in the name of cow protection are criminal acts and should not be given a communal colour, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday.

On the lynching of a farmer, Umar Khan, by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar district last week, Naqvi said the Rajasthan government is doing the needful and it is the constitutional duty of the governments to protect all sections of society. 

"There are such people everywhere who try to derail the agenda of development through their destructive agenda... such incidents are sad and unfortunate," Naqvi said. 

"Sometimes, people avenge their personal enmities in the garb of cow protection and other such things. But I believe such criminal acts should not be given communal colour. Those who give such incidents communal colour are actually helping the destructive agenda of vigilantes."