BONGAIGAON, Aug 4 - A truck carrying cows skidded off and overturned on the 31-National Highway at Sarakhola under Abhayapuri Police Station in Bongaigaon district in the early hours on Wednesday.
The 12-wheeler truck bearing registration number AS-17B/6336 was carrying 25 cows, which were rescued along with the truck by the police. Three cranes were used to pull up the truck on the highway. Cows were unloaded at North Salmara Police Out Post and were tied to posts in the nearby field. Among these 25 cows, two were found dead and two injured.
The driver of the truck is undergoing medical treatment in a private hospital in Bongaigaon town. Police could not exactly identify the departure point and destination of the truck with this �consignment�. But according to animal lovers, the truck had breached transportation permit and disregarded the clauses of the Motor Vehicle Act.
Around 25 to 50 trucks illegally loaded with cows pass on the highway across Kokrajhar, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Dhubri districts every night. But police do not act against such illegal transportation of the animal in these districts, which brings them under the cloud of suspicion, local people of Sarakhola and North Salmara alleged.
Activists of Goriya-Moriya Deshi Jatiya Parishad, AKRSU, AASU and BJP had blocked the 31-National Highway on Wednesday in protest against this illegal transportation of cows and demanded action from government against the local touts and a section of police and smugglers involved in this illegal trade.