In Reasi town, local groups gave a shutdown call for the release of the arrested gau rakshaks.

In 1999, the first warning of Pakistani intruders in Kargil came from Nomads travelling with their cattle. Eighteen years later, nomadic families are living in fear.NDTV trekked for an hour from the nearest road to meet the nomads who were brutally attacked by gau rakshaks last week in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.Still frightened, they tell us about how they were intercepted by a group of 10 to 12 cow vigilantes just after they crossed a police check point. In just a half an hour, it turned into a mob of 200 men. For over a lakh nomads living in Reasi district and adjoining regions, the worry now is what will happen to their cattle, how will they feed their families."There is a lot of fear now, we are scared to move with our livelihood, we have little children, some of our men have gone ahead and some of us are here, we can't do this job anymore," said Raja Imtiyaz, a nomad.The police say this is one-off case; they have arrested 11 gau rakshaks, but also filed a case against the nomads for not having proper papers."Every day around 100 nomad families move from Reasi, there is never any untoward incident happening anywhere, this was a small group and they didn't carry valid documents with them," said Virinder Sharma, Deputy Inspector General Reasi.In Reasi town, local groups gave a shutdown call for the release of the arrested gau rakshaks.

"They have not released our men so far, if they release them, we will not agitate, but if they don't release them, we will protest and continue with the strike," said Pankaj Khajuria, a shopkeeper at Reasi.Last month the Reasi administration issued probationary orders for the regulation of transportation of bovine animals. Verification of bovines by tehsildar is needed for transportation and the order will remain in force for two months. That is the time when most of the nomads make a move from Jammu to the cooler, higher reaches of valley with their livestock.