GUWAHATI: Beef politics has finally arrived in Assam as police arrested three persons, including a minor for allegedly keeping beef in the upper Assam town Jorhat. This is the first such incident in the northeastern state.

The three arrested have been identified as Shah Jamal Haque (21) from Dhubri and Abdul Rahman (19) of Kokrajhar and the third one is a minor. They were engaged in construction work in the town.

They have been sent to 14 days' judicial remand by the court of the Jorhat CJM, while the minor has been sent to an observation home.

The three were booked under Section 295 (A) IPC and under Section 568 of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 1950 after alleged seizure of beef from them.

Jorhat superintendent of police Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan, however, told The Citizen that three of them have been arrested for creating communal tension.

“They displayed the meat in public which might provoke communal tension. They shouldn’t have done that in public. We received complaints from the locals and police have arrested them for that,” said Bhuyan.

Consumption of beef is not banned in Assam or any other northeastern states.

Senior journalist Manoram Gogoi termed the incident as extremely dangerous. “It’s a political conspiracy and was being planned for a long time. It’s a ploy to distract the attention from the fundamental issues and create chaos in the state. What we will eat or how we will dress is an absolute person issue and we have the freedom to do that. But incidents like this sends a very dangerous message,” Gogoi told The Citizen.

The BJP has maintained that there will no ‘beef ban’ in the northeastern states which have Christian majority as some of these states are approaching elections.

“Ban on cow slaughter like the one in UP won’t take effect in Nagaland if our party comes to power next year. The reality here is very different and our central leaders are aware of that,” Nagaland BJP chief Visasolie Lhoungu was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times a few days ago.