More rights demanded for holy cow
Eight Hindu cow rights activists drank pesticide as part of a protest in India calling for the animals to be given greater protection, with one protester dying of his injuries, police said.
The "gau bhakt", or cow worshippers, consumed the poison at a rally outside a government office in western Gujarat state on Thursday (March 17).
They were protesting at what they say is the ongoing slaughter of cows, considered sacred by India's large Hindu population, despite a widespread ban on killing the animals.
The investigating office Manish Nakum said he did not believe the men, who drank a mild pesticide used on cotton plants, intended to commit suicide.
Cow slaughter and the consumption of beef are banned in Gujarat and several other states in officially secular India. But the activists claim cows are still being killed illegally and want cows to be given the special status of "rashtra mata" ("mother of the nation").
Around 80 per cent of India's 1.2 billion population is Hindu, but it is also home to large numbers of Muslims, Christians and Buddhists.
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