LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) – More than half the arrests this 12 months below a tricky nationwide safety regulation in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh have concerned suspects in circumstances of cow slaughter, information confirmed.

The northern state has used the National Security Act (NSA), which permits for these deemed a risk to nationwide safety to be detained with out cost for as much as a 12 months, virtually 140 occasions within the first eight months of the 12 months.

“The NSA has been invoked in 139 cases across Uttar Pradesh, of which 76 have been against the slaughter of cows,” Awanish Awasthi, a prime state official, stated in a press release.

The determine, for the 12 months to August 18, was first reported by the Indian Express newspaper on Friday.

The cow is taken into account sacred by India’s Hindu-majority inhabitants, and most states, together with Uttar Pradesh, have legal guidelines towards slaughter of the animals.

Vigilante assaults on these accused of killing the animal for meat, typically folks belonging to the tiny Muslim minority, are frequent.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has repeatedly urged use of the NSA to fight regulation and order points within the state of greater than 200 million folks.

The Hindu monk is a high-profile determine in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The NSA, which Indian rights activists have described as draconian, can also be incessantly used within the contested area of Kashmir to detain folks suspected of separatist exercise.

“In many cases the charges of NSA are dropped because the authorities fail to prove it in court,” stated Irfan Ghazi, a lawyer primarily based within the state’s metropolis of Aligarh, who has defended shoppers held below the act.