A 24-year-old man named Aijaz Dar, from Jammu and Kashmir's Thanamandi region, was reportedly beaten to death by a group of people when he was returning home to Rajouri district with a buffalo on Tuesday, 22 June.
According to a report by The Indian Express, local residents said that Dar and two others, who had escaped with injuries, had been on their way home at night after purchasing a buffalo from Laam, near Nowshera.
The three were purportedly assaulted with stones and sticks while passing through Muradpur.
The three injured were then taken to Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, where Dar succumbed to his wounds.
Alleging that cow vigilantes had perpetrated Dar's murder, local residents gathered in protest outside the Rajouri Deputy Commissioner's office, demanding the immediate arrest of the accused under the Public Safety Act.
The police indicated that four of the accused have been identified, and are now absconding.
Special teams have been deployed to apprehend them at the earliest, a senior police officer told The Indian Express.
The incident has received widespread censure from local residents. "Murderer of Aijaz Dar should get death penalty. Only bread earner of a poor family killed by goons last night in Rajouri, J&K. How many families will become victim of Lynching?" Guftar Ahmed Choudhary, spokesperson of Gujjar Bakarwal Youth Welfare Conference, said in a tweet.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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