Two Muslim youth who were travelling on a pickup van carrying cow were lynched to death by villagers near Dhupguri of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal early on Sunday. The victims hailed from Assam and Coochbehar district in West Bengal.

“The bodies have been sent for post mortem and we have started an investigation,” said a senior police officer of Jalpaiguri district, reported Indian Express. According to police sources, the incident took place at around 3 am in Dadon 2 village about 15 kms from Dhupguri town.

The victim were travelling on a pickup van through the village at night. The van had seven cows in it. The van somehow lost its way and kept circling the area. Alerted by the noise of the van, the villagers tried to stop it, but the vehicle sped off.

Later locals blocked the road and forced the van to stop. Two of the passengers were caught by villagers while the driver of the van managed to flee. Villagers then questioned the two for some time and then lynched them on suspicion of being cattle thieves. The victims have been identified as Hafizul Sheikh of Dhubri in Assam and Anwar Hussain of Patlahawa in Coochbehar.

Later police recovered the bodies and rushed them to a local hospital. But they were declared brought dead. According to the police, it is not confirmed that the victim’s were cow thieves or cattle traders who bought the cattle from a market in the area.

In a similar incident this June, three Muslim youths were lynched in Chopra, North Dinajpur.