A nine-year-old girl was among five people attacked by self-proclaimed 'gau rakshaks' in Jammu and Kashmir, news channel NDTV reported.

The incident reportedly took place on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, around 250 kilometers south of Srinagar.

Reports about the total number of people injured in the attack remained unclear, with NDTV saying that all five, including the the girl, were wounded.

Mufti Islah, a journalist based out of Srinagar, tweeted that four people, including the girl, were injured and that five 'gau rakshaks' were behind the attack.

NDTV and Islah both said that those attacked belong to the same nomad family and that the attackers took away the family's entire flock of goats, sheep and cows.

"We have registered an FIR. I have asked DIG of Udhampur range to visit the area. Strict action will be taken against these goons," Jammu and Kashmir police chief SP Vaid was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Recounting the incident, one of the victims of the attack told NDTV, "They beat us ruthlessly. Somehow we managed to flee from there. One of our children, a 10-year-old, is still missing. We don't know whether he is alive or dead. They even beat our elders very badly. They wanted to kill us and throw our bodies into the river."

The Jammu and Kashmir incident comes against the backdrop of heightened cow vigilantism in the country. Just this month, the Alwar attack, in which one diary farm owner was killed by cow vigilantes, sparked nationwide furore.

Leading government officials and political figures, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, have come out strongly against such attacks, with police officials in the country also vowing to take strong action against such attackers.

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