Hindu cow protection workers surrounded and beaten with weapons after arriving to oppose illegal conversion and cow slaughter gathering

Case ID : 30a826e | Location : Banswara, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 2 May, 2026

Case ID : 30a826e

Banswara, Rajasthan, India

2 May, 2026

Hindu cow protection workers surrounded and beaten with weapons after arriving to oppose illegal conversion and cow slaughter gathering

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim

Case Summary

Three Hindu cow protection workers sustained serious head injuries after a crowd of approximately 100 people surrounded and attacked them with sticks, stones, and slings near Kalinjara Dam in Kalinjara village, Kushalgarh police station area, Banswara district, Rajasthan. The attack took place when the workers arrived at the scene upon receiving information that an illegal conversion gathering and cow slaughter were being conducted in the area. Ravi Bhambhor and his companions received information that cow slaughter and conversion activity were taking place near Kalinjara Dam. They informed the police and proceeded to the scene, where a gathering was being organised for conversion purposes in violation of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2025. Upon the arrival of the cow protection workers, the crowd surrounded them and launched a violent attack. Prashant Tanwar, Luv Taylor, and Aadish Ranavat sustained serious head injuries. The attackers also threatened to kill the workers and warned them not to interfere in the religious gathering. Given the critical condition of Prashant Tanwar, he was referred to Dahod, Gujarat, after initial treatment. Luv Taylor and Aadish Ranavat were admitted to MG Hospital, Banswara, for treatment. Police registered a case against 15 named accused, along with 100 individuals, under the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2025 and other serious sections. Kushalgarh Station House Officer Praveen Singh confirmed that the four main accused, Anil Rawat, Atish, Devchand, and Nilesh alias Ismail, were arrested. Police continued searches for the remaining absconding accused to maintain order in the area.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for this case is "Attack not resulting in death". The sub-category for this case is "Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save the victim". In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The cow protection workers who arrived at Kalinjara Dam did so in response to confirmed information that both cow slaughter and an illegal conversion gathering were taking place in violation of state law. Their presence at the scene was not provocative. It was an act of community vigilance in defence of two principles central to Hindu religious life: the protection of the cow and the protection of fellow Hindus from coercive conversion. The attack they suffered was a direct and immediate consequence of that act of defence. The crowd's response to their arrival was instantaneous and organised. A group of approximately 100 people, armed with sticks, stones, and slings, surrounded the workers and launched a coordinated assault. The speed and organisation of the response establishes that the crowd had anticipated the possibility of Hindu community intervention and had prepared to meet it with force. The cow protection workers were not attacked because of who they were as individuals. They were attacked because of what their arrival represented: Hindu resistance to an anti-Hindu religious operation. The death threats issued alongside the physical assault make the intent of the attack explicit. The attackers warned the workers not to interfere in the religious gathering and threatened to kill them if they did. These threats were not expressions of personal anger. They were issued as deterrents, designed to ensure that no future Hindu intervention would disrupt the conversion operation. The violence was therefore not merely retaliatory but strategic: it was intended to establish, through force, that organised anti-Hindu religious activity in the Banswara tribal area would be protected against Hindu community opposition at any cost. Given that this case met the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, the perpetrators' conduct reflected more than a violent response to an unwanted intrusion. By launching a coordinated armed attack on Hindu cow protection workers who had arrived to oppose an illegal conversion gathering, and by issuing explicit death threats to deter future Hindu intervention, their actions demonstrated a deliberate use of violence to suppress Hindu community resistance to organised anti-Hindu religious activity. Prashant Tanwar, Luv Taylor, and Aadish Ranavat were targeted specifically because they were Hindus acting in defence of their community and their faith, and the violence directed at them was chosen because it would be most effective in ensuring that Hindu opposition to the conversion operation could not continue. This reflects an underlying hostility toward Hindu religious identity that cannot be characterised as anything other than religiously motivated. Given that this case met the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred rather than when it was reported or published. The exact date on which the attack occurred was not confirmed in the source. 3 May 2026 has been used as the primary incident date, derived from the source's publication date. This was recorded for documentation purposes only.