“They chased our truck for more than 20-30 kms. In the beginning, they were five or six, but by the time they overtook and stopped us, their number had swelled to around 20,” said Alwin, a truck driver and one of the two persons who were attacked near Umarkhed Taluka in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district by a group he described as a “Hindutva gang”.Alwin and his co-worker, Mohammed Nadaf Nisar Qureshi, were driving a fruit-laden truck from Pattambi town in Kerala’s Palakkad district towards Madhya Pradesh when their vehicle was intercepted and attacked by a group of armed men. Alwin escaped with minor injuries, while Qureshi sustained serious injuries to his skull and nose and has been in the ICU of a private hospital on the outskirts of Nanded since April 24.Alwin, describing the incident over a phone call, claimed that the attack was unprovoked. “We were suddenly stopped. I saw they were armed. I was so scared to stop that I decided to keep driving.”Such incidents on the roads of Maharashtra are not uncommon. Several vigilante groups, affiliated with far-right organisations, have been manning these roads and unlawfully checking vehicles and intimidating drivers. These “check points” are set up under the pretext of looking for cow meat, but the drivers, who mostly belong to Muslim or Bahujan communities, are invariably intimidated and attacked.Both Alwin and Qureshi, who drive long distances, say they have long avoided driving on Maharashtra’s roads at night. “Vehicles registered in the south and our physical appearances, which clearly identify us as non-Hindus, easily attract the ire of vigilante groups that actively move around and look for their targets at night,” Alwin, a resident of Mulki in South Karnataka, told The Wire.The incident occurred on April 23, but for over 24 hours, the police had not registered an FIR. Later, the police claimed it was a case of road rage and that the assailants were agitated because the victims had overtaken their vehicle. Investigating officer Barge confirmed that six men have been taken into two days’ police custody. “We are on the lookout for one more person,” Barge added.According to the victims, the police are underplaying the case by calling it a simple incident of “road rage”. “Those men were armed and they were keeping vigil on the road,” Qureshi’s relative told The Wire. “The attack was of a serious nature. They attacked to kill. Qureshi, who has been in the ICU since the attack, will need multiple surgeries. Yet, the police have only applied lenient sections,” Qureshi’s family alleged.The two victims come from the lower strata of society, and until the evening of April 25, their families were reaching out to different organisations for monetary help.