Three men have been held in connection with the killing of a police officer in mob violence over alleged cow slaughter in India’s Uttar Pradesh state.

Police are looking for 24 others suspected to be involved in the murder in Bulandshahr district on Monday.

Subodh Kumar Singh died when right-wing Hindu groups clashed with police over their alleged inability to stop cow slaughter.

The mob also set fire to a police station in the district.

An 18-year-old protester was killed and another policeman was injured in the violence.

The police have also registered cases of rioting, attempt to murder and destruction of property against 50 unnamed people.

Shops and schools in the area are shut and more than a thousand policemen have been deployed, says BBC Hindi’s Nitin Srivastava in Bulandshahr.

Our correspondent says incidents of violence over alleged cow slaughter are not uncommon in this region, but something like this is unprecedented.

The incident has prompted outrage on social media, with many calling the attack “senseless” and “barbaric”.

This incident is a total disgrace to the government. And I am sure you are not going to give a responsible explanation for that, people in the government only knows hypocrisy and they are far away from nationalism#BulandshaharViolence @myyo951 @narendramodi @rajnathsingh

End of Twitter post by @AbdullahArsala8

May be it will take the senseless killing of a Hindu police inspector to finally put an end to the BJP's tolerance (in the centre and in states) of cow-vigilante-terrorism. #SubodhKumar#BulandshaharViolence#Bulandshahar

End of Twitter post by @tunkuv

#BulandshaharViolence and murder of police man. That’s how the MSM must put it. It is not a case of “policeman lost life in violence “.

End of Twitter post by @TheAdvIqbal

This can’t be religion.. This is purely barbaric #BulandshaharViolence

End of Twitter post by @parthm1989

Cows are considered holy by India’s majority Hindu population. Many states have actively started enforcing bans on cow slaughter after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed India’s federal government in 2014.

So-called cow vigilantism has been on the rise and has led to several killings in the past few years.

“The local police got information about cow slaughter after which they immediately started investigating the matter,” Anuj Jha, a top district official, told reporters on Monday.

“But soon after, people in the area blocked the streets and started pelting the police with stones.”

Mr Jha added that police officer Subodh Kumar Singh died in the clashes that followed.

It is unclear where the alleged cow slaughter occurred.

Police said they were investigating the incident to find out who instigated the violence.

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