Srinagar, April 22: Cow vigilantes assaulted a group of nomad families in Jammu last evening while they were migrating to Kashmir with their livestock in keeping with a centuries-old practice, leaving young and old injured and traumatised and a boy allegedly missing.

The families said the attackers took away their money and possessions, including cattle and dogs. The mob apparently suspected the families of smuggling cattle to Kashmir for slaughter although the nomads, called Gujjars and Bekerwals, have been taking their livestock to graze in the Valley's meadows every summer.

Reasi superintendent of police Tahir Bhat said that two persons - an elderly man and a woman - were injured in the assault in the Talwara area of Jammu's Reasi district. But the families said at least four persons had been admitted to hospital and a boy was missing.

A woman who said she was badly beaten up alleged that the mob had arrived carrying sickles and rods and had tried to sexually assault the women.

"We feared they might kill us. All of us were crying. They did not even spare my aged uncle. A 10-year-old boy is missing; we are worried about him," she said.

The families have identified the injured as Sabir Ali, Nazakat Ali, Naseema Begum and a nine-year-old girl, Sammi.

Police sources acknowledged that the nine-year-old girl had been thrashed and admitted to hospital but would not count her among the injured.

"There are no visible injuries on her body but she is in shock. Two injured adults have multiple fractures," an officer said.

Sources said the police were delaying any arrests fearing a law-and-order problem.

Thousands of Muslim nomads from Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi and other districts of Jammu migrate to Kashmir during the summer with their sheep, goats and sometimes cows and bulls.

Javaid Rahi, an activist and scholar working for tribal communities, said that Jammu was witnessing an increasing intolerance against the Gujjar migration, and that such attacks had been happening for a long time.

"The nomads are regularly harassed when the annual migration starts. April is the most sensitive month. We keep urging the authorities to provide them with protection," he said.

"We have asked the district magistrate of Reasi to investigate the attack."

Mian Altaf Ahmad, a politician from the main Opposition party, the National Conference, accused ruling allies People's Democratic Party and the BJP of patronising "hooliganism and vandalism".

"The delay in arrests is unfortunate. The police should act under the law without any pressure from those who patronise such hooliganism," he said.

Cow vigilantism has been on the rise in Jammu. A year and a half ago, a 20-year-old Kashmiri trucker, Zahid Ahmad, was killed after the discovery of cattle carcasses at Udhampur in Jammu.

Zahid was sleeping in his truck near the site on October 9, 2015, when he was attacked with a petrol bomb and his truck was set on fire.

Investigations later revealed that the cows had died of food poisoning and that the rumours of slaughter had been spread to inflame passions.