Ghaziabad, Feb 2 (IANS) An angry mob blocked a busy road here Tuesday and pelted stones at vehicles, protesting the theft and slaughter of four cows, police said.
Sharmishtha Chauhan, a resident of Sikandarpur area on Loni Road here, complained early Tuesday that her cows had been stolen overnight. Her neighbours started searching for the animals in the area and spotted a group of people loading carcasses of butchered cows onto a mini-truck in a field.

When the residents approached the group, they threatened them with pistols and fled the scene. The residents were later joined by more people and they came out onto the streets, protesting the killing of the animals.

The protesters blocked the busy Loni Road for two hours from around 9.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. They also pelted stones on vehicles and threw burning tyres on the road to disrupt traffic.

A large number of policemen were deployed in the area to control the situation.

On the complaint of residents, a case was registered at the Sahibabad police station against four people, including the son of a local councillor identified as Iqbal.

Superintendent of Police (City) A.K. Vijeta said: “Four people have been named in the FIR and we are trying to identify more who were behind the killing. These people had butchered the cows with an intention to sell the meat and seem to have no intention to trigger violence.”