Uttar Pradesh’s Director General of Police Sulkhan Singh has issued an order to invoke the National Security Act and Gangsters Act against those involved in cow slaughter and illegal transport of milch animals, ANI reported on Tuesday. “There is a need to clamp down on cow slaughter and transport of cows for the same. The National Security Act, 1980, or Gangsters Act must be invoked against criminals indulging in the same,” read the order issued to all senior police officers.

The National Security Act allows for the preventive detention for up to a year, allowing the state or Centre to hold someone in custody without bail or trial, if they believe the person can act in a way that poses a threat to the security of the state/country or maintaining of public order. On the other hand, a person booked under the Gangsters Act becomes part of a gang listed in police records. The police can keep such a person in judicial remand for 60 days. They can also issue summons to them for questioning even if no fresh case is lodged.

However, the order does not specify the circumstances under which the two Acts would be applied. DGP’s spokesperson Rahul Srivatstava told DNA that the NSA and Gangsters Act were invoked in the past as well. “The DGP has renewed the earlier order passed during past regimes,” he told the daily.

Besides, Singh asked the police to register FIRs against cow vigilantes if they violate the law. The state police will now prepare dossiers on cow vigilantes after identifying them with the help of intelligence networks. “Those indulging in vigilantism should be dealt with sternly,” said the DGP, according to Deccan Herald.

The new instructions come after the Centre, in May, had banned the sale of all kinds of cattle for slaughter at animal markets across the country. The rules, issued under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, require anyone purchasing cattle to provide an undertaking that the animals are bought for agricultural purposes and not slaughter.