On Tuesday afternoon, an agitated mob in West Bengal's Howrah district hurled stones and bricks as well as absuse, while chasing off police officials who had been patrolling the area. The incident took part in the Tikiapara area, in ward number 19 and 20 at Belirius Road.
Despite the fact that the country is under a state of lockdown amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, a crowd had gathered gathered at a marketplace in Tikiapara.
The Free Press Journal's Prema Rajaram reported that sources say that officials had questioned a woman for walking on the street, in violation of the lockdown. Allegedly the got into an argument with the police, following which locals attacked the security personnel patrolling the area. Bricks were hurled at police pickets and it’s believed that two police personnel have been injured.
Taking cognizance of the incident the West Bengal Police on Tuesday evening took to Twitter promising that they would be taking "strong action against everyone involved" in the incident.
"The perpetrators will be identified & brought to justice. No transgression of the law anywhere will be tolerated," the police tweeted.
Howrah as a district a red zone and has the second-most cases in West Bengal after Kolkata. The state, as of Tuesday evening, has 522 active cases, and 22 people have so far died due to the virus. 39 people have died from co-morbidity issues. 28 new cases have been recorded in the state in the last 24 hours.
According to an official update, eight out of the 22 districts in Bengal are free from the novel coronavirus.
Across India, the total number of cases recorded thus far stands at 29974, while 937 people have died. As per data given by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 7026 people have been 'cured' and discharged.
