A Muslim mob was caught on camera while attacking a police barricade on Yalamma bridge in Malegaon, Maharashtra yesterday.
VIDEO: मालेगावात यल्लमा पुलावर शेकडोच्या जमावाने पोलिसांवर हल्ला चढवला; पोलिसांची अधिक कुमक आल्यानंतर जमावाने पळ ठोकला pic.twitter.com/qwWzaGIzE3
— Maharashtra Times (@mataonline) April 23, 2020
In the video, the approximately hundred-strong mob can be seen crossing the bridge and clambering over the barricades put by police to enforce the lockdown. They then start throwing chairs and other items kept in a nearby shed, as the couple of policemen stationed there armed only with lathis run backwards.
Almost immediately, a police van with reinforcements arrive. Seeing it, the mob starts running back across the bridge towards their colony.
Maharashtra is the worst Covid-19 affected state in Bharat with a whopping 5649 cases, 26% of the total cases in the country. There are 5 major hotspot districts in the state, all designated as red zones. Mumbai (3096 active cases), Pune (660), Thane (465), Nashik (96) and Nagpur (76). Within Nashik district, Malegaon city is the most worrisome contributing around 85% of all cases in the district.
“Of the 236 samples sent for testing from Malegaon Municipal Corporation limits so far, a total of 85, or a little over 36%, have returned positive. All eight COVID-19 deaths in the district have also been from Malegaon,” an official said on 21 April.
Last month, Malegaon’s AIMIM MLA Maulana Mufti Mohammad Ismail along with 20-25 of his supporters barged into the government hospital in the city and assaulted doctors and other hospital staff for ‘not answering’ the MLA’s phone calls. The same MLA is reported to have attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event and despite being prescribed home quarantine, was been attending public functions.
There have also been multiple reports of abuse and assault of health & municipal workers, including Muslim women workers, in the Muslim-majority city which has 79% Muslim population as per Census 2011.
This incident again demonstrates the impunity with which Muslim mobs attack police across the country. There is an urgent need for police modernization and to empower police with more effective crowd control measures, including the option of deadly force, than just the ubiquitous lathi.
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