NEW DELHI, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Police in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Thursday arrested eight men for publicly slaughtering a calf to protest against the central government's recent ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter.
All the eight were members of Youth Congress, the youth wing of Kerala's ruling and India's main opposition Congress party. They slaughtered the calf in Kannur city last week while shouting slogans against the government.
"The accused were arrested on charges of causing cruelty to animal as well as unlawful assembly. They will soon be produced in a court," a senior police official said.
The central government announced the ban last week, claiming it would "stop unregulated animal trade." However, critics said that the move is aimed at protecting cows, considered holy by India's majority Hindu population.
Though the Congress party opposes the ban on sale of cattle for slaughter, it has suspended three of the accused, with its second-in-command Rahul Gandhi describing the act as "thoughtless and barbaric."
Two Indian states -- Kerala in the south and West Bengal in the east -- have already strongly objected to the ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter at animal markets, terming it as nothing but an "unconstitutional order."
There have been a number of attacks on people transporting cattle by cow vigilantes, on the suspicion that the animals were meant for cattle.
