Assam Police have arrested 205 people across the state during a series of coordinated raids targeting alleged violations of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021, authorities said on Saturday.
The sweeping crackdown began on 1 July and has so far covered 191 premises, including hotels, restaurants and private residences.
Speaking to the media agency, Akhilesh Kumar Singh, Inspector General of Police (Law & Order), confirmed that “the drive in connection with the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021 was started from July 1, and so far 205 persons have been apprehended across the state.”
During the operations, police seized approximately 1,974 kilograms of beef. Singh noted that the initiative was being carried out statewide and would continue.
The Assam Cattle Preservation Act prohibits the slaughter and sale of beef in areas inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef-eating communities. It also bans such activities within a 5-kilometre radius of Hindu temples, satras, namghars and other Hindu religious sites.
Raids were carried out in several districts, including Nagaon, Dibrugarh, Kamrup, Dhubri and Goalpara. The crackdown comes days after Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reiterated his commitment to enforce the Act strictly, particularly the 5-kilometre rule around Hindu religious sites.
“According to our Cattle Preservation Act, no one can eat or sell beef within a radius of 5 kilometres where a Hindu temple, a namghar, is situated,” Sarma said. “We have decided to implement this section of the act strictly and believe this will offer a permanent solution.”
Sarma added that Standard Operating Procedures would be issued to all district administrations, instructing them to prohibit sacrificial slaughter (kurbani) within the restricted zones.
“We will send an SOP to the district administration so that there will be no kurbani in future within a radius of 5 km from any temple or namghar,” he said. “The state government will implement this strictly. Kurbani of this special animal will not be allowed.”
The Chief Minister also expressed concerns over communal harmony, alleging that attempts were being made to stir unrest in parts of the state following Eid.
“After Eid, a section is trying to harm communal harmony in a few places in Assam — first Dhubri, then Lakhipur, Lakhimpur, Goalpara and now in Hojai,” Sarma said.
He further directed all district commissioners to survey sensitive areas — including tribal belts, blocks, village grazing reserves (VGR), and professional grazing reserves (PGR) — and identify places where non-indigenous Assamese communities and non-SC, ST, or OBC populations have lived for fewer than three generations.
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