In pics: Citizens hit the streets to attend 'Not in my name' protests

Actors Shabana Azmi and Konkona Sena Sharma were among those who participated in the protest

Protests were held in cities across the country on Wednesday against a wave of attacks on Muslims by mobs that accuse them of killing cows or eating beef. Several activists, film personalities and youth staged the protest, opposing 'community-targeted' mob lynchings. 
 

Citizens hold placards during a silent protest. (Photo:PTI)

Actors Shabana Azmi and Konkona Sen Sharma were among those who participated in the protest held at Carter Road in suburban Bandra on Wednesday evening.

Photo: Twitter

The protests follow the stabbing to death last week of a 16-year-old boy accused of possessing beef on a train. Several people have been arrested. On Tuesday, a man was beaten and his house set on fire by a mob that accused him of slaughtering a cow in eastern Jharkhand.

Photo: Instagram

Waving "Not in My Name" banners and "Stop Cow Terrorism" placards, actors, writers and young mothers cradling babies braved monsoon rains in Mumbai, Kolkata, and other cities, while in Delhi a cast of intellectuals and activists were joined by relatives of recent lynching victims.
 

Muslims offer prayers as they participate in a protest in Kolkata. (Photo:PTI)

Many Hindus worship the cow as sacred to their religion.
 

Critics accuse right-wing Hindu groups, some linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of fomenting or not doing enough to stop violence against Muslims and lower-caste Hindus who eat beef or work in the meat and leather industries. 
 

Instagram

Modi denies the accusation and has publicly criticised so-called cow vigilantes.
 

Twitter

Last Friday, about 20 men attacked four Muslims on a train in the outskirts of New Delhi, fatally stabbing a teenager and seriously injuring two others.

PTI

Almost all of the 63 attacks since 2010 involving cow-related violence were recorded after Modi and his Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014, IndiaSpend, a data journalism website, said in a report.

Twitter

Twenty-eight Indians - 24 of them Muslims - have been killed and 124 injured since 2010 in cow-related violence, IndiaSpend said.

Modi's information minister, Venkaiah Naidu, called the killing of Khan "atrocious" and said local authorities must take action.