Bangalore, Aug. 8: Dalit activists in Karnataka have decided to hold protests across the state by eating beef to assert their right to food of choice, the agitation fuelled by increasing attacks in the name of cow protection.

Karnataka Dalit Welfare Trust president Shantharaju announced the decision today, a day after a protest in Mysore ended with two Dalit activists being detained in the Congress-ruled state. "If we don't fight for our rights now, we won't have a future in this country," Shantharaju said.

The beef-eating protests will be held at the end of this month, he said, adding a joint forum comprising Dalits and minorities is being formed to take on organisations that have intensified their campaign against cow slaughter.

Two recent cow-related attacks by suspected Bajrang Dal activists - one on a Dalit family in Chikmagalur and the other on a backward class man in Bhatkal - have triggered the plan for the statewide demonstrations.

"In both cases, self-styled cow protectors took the law into their hands instead of calling the police. We can't sit idle and watch such atrocities," Shantharaju said.

The last time beef-eating protests were held in Karnataka was during the uproar over the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit Hyderabad University scholar, this January.

"We will hold protests on a much bigger scale this time to send the message that what we eat is our right," Shantharaju said. He dismissed as "crocodile tears" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to states to crack down on cow vigilantes.