New Delhi, October 16

Police in northern India said a village mob beat one Muslim to death with sticks and injured four others who were accused of smuggling cows in a truck to be slaughtered for beef.

Hard-line Hindus have been trying to force a national ban on cow slaughter, triggering mob violence. A Muslim man was lynched in Uttar Pradesh state last month over false rumours his family had eaten beef for dinner.

Hindus worship cows as a sacred animal and some states ban slaughtering them.

Police officer Somya Sambhasivam said today police were searching for villagers who fled after the attack on Wednesday on the four Muslims in Sarahan, a village in Himachal Pradesh state. The area is nearly 260 km north of New Delhi.