Mob attacks police party, snatch their weapons and take four as hostage
Gandhinagar : A police team came under heavy mob attack in a village in Navsari district in Gujarat on Tuesday. Over 2000 people armed with stones and other weapons attacked a police party and smashed their vehicles, snatched their weapons and held four of them as hostage.
The district police is investigating complaints of illegal cow slaughter. A police team had gone to Davel on information about illegal slaughtering of cows and its progeny, but no sooner did the police convoy approach the village that they were attacked from all sides.
The windscreens and windowpanes of at least two police vehicles were totally smashed in the stone attack. The unruly crowd snatched away rifles from two policemen and took four policemen ‘prisoners’. The weapons were returned after considerable amount of pressure was brought to bear on the village folk through intermediaries. Later the four cops were also released. The police burst about a dozen teargas shells and later fired two rounds in the air to disperse the rampaging mob.
Official sources said that the situation was under control and two persons have been arrested in connection with the attack. According to a report over a thousand police personnel have been deployed in the village to maintain law and order.
This incident follows close behind a similar incident in Shahpur locality in Ahmedabad on Saturday when the police had gone to the Rangeela Chowky area looking for anti-social elements involved in illegal cow slaughtering. The unruly mob again attacked the police with stones and threw even crude bombs on the police forcing the police to open fire in which three persons were injured and one of them succumbed to injuries in the hospital on Monday.
The recurrencing disturbances beginning with Vadodara during the recent Navratri festivals followed by Ahmedabad and Navsari is cause for concern. The additional chief secretary (home) S K Nanda at the behest of the chief minister Anandiben Patel convened high level meeting in Gandhinagar this afternoon and instructed the police officials to suppress the unrest with strong hands.
The repetition of the attack on policemen had given rise to the suspicion of political involvement who may be behind the anti-social elements. Nanda has told police officers not to spare anyone,howsoever influential he or she may be.
R K MISRA
