An Indian man, 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq, was recently dragged out of bed and beaten to death in the street after he was accused of eating beef.
The Indian Express reports that there have been growing confrontations between Hindus who do not eat beef and other groups, primarily Muslims and Christians, who do. Over one billion Indians, about 80 percent of the population, is Hindu.
The government forbade slaughtering cows and possessing beef earlier this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known as a Hindu nationalist who was sanctioned by the United States for his role in religious riots that left more than a thousand dead.