Hello and welcome to assignment on the BBC World Service, I'm Jill McGivering.

It's ten o'clock at night and I'm driving through Northern Madhya Pradesh in the heart of India.

We've been on the road for nearly five hours and we're in

pursuit of something very specific. There's a tip-off that some illegal goods are

being transported and the men I'm with some of them armed are very

keen to catch it because it's something that's very close to their hearts.

That something is an animal, the cow which is sacred to Hindus. The men

crammed in the car with me a part of a vigilante group determined to stop cows

being taken to slaughter. They say most of

those smuggling cows are Muslims and right now they're chasing lorries suspected of

transporting cows through the night.

Sir I could hear that you sporting be a threat. This is just telling me that he's concerned that may be a confrontation when we arrive.

These are devout Hindu men who are desperate to try to protect cows from being

smuggled across this state where killing a cow and transporting one for slaughter

is illegal and these people tell me as well as protecting the

cow they feel they're also protecting their whole way of life.

I'm Hindu he.

I'm Hindu, this baby-faced 22-year-old tells me, the cow is our goddess. We won't allow cows to be slaughtered under any circumstances. In this week's assignment I'm in Northern India

investigating the rise of right-wing Hindu extremism and the fear it's spreading

across the country. Mr Tivari is the man in charge here.

He's a retired telecoms engineer and for eight years he's been hunting cow smugglers.

He's a wiry determined man, his face partly covered with a scarf and a

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