BHOPAL: At least two police constables on night duty to enforce a total lockdown in the Old City’s Talaiya area were attacked with knives by a history-sheeter and his aides, leaving both injured late on Monday night.
Taking prompt notice of the incident, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted on Tuesday that the National Security Act (NSA) would be invoked against those who attacked the policemen on duty.
The city police have arrested so far five accused, including the prime accused and history-sheeter Shahid Kabootar, Nafees Aureshi, Shahrukh Khan, Mohd Javed and Mohsin Khan.
The NSA has been invoked against all the arrested men, who have also been booked for rioting and attempt to murder, Talaiya police station in-charge DP Singh told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
The incident happened in the Ibrahimpura locality – one of the COVID-19 containment zones – in Bhopal at around 11.15 pm, when two constables Satish and Laxman Yadav, posted at the Talaiya police station of the state capital, were on duty to enforce a total lockdown in the area.
Suddenly they saw a group of men violating the lockdown in the communally sensitive locality. The two cops ordered the men to stop but the men instead attacked them with knives resulting in injuries to the duo.
According to the Talaiya police station in-charge DP Singh, both the cops have been admitted to the Hamidia Hospital.
The Talaiya police station area where the attack took place is the same area where then SP (Bhopal North) and IPS officer Abhay Singh had sustained injuries in his right eye during a mob attack amid communal violence in August 2011.
Prior to this, four men accused in the April 1 attack on female doctors and health workers in Taat Patti Bakhal locality of Indore too were slapped with the NSA and have been sent to the Rewa Central Jail.
After Indore, which has reported over 140 coronavirus cases so far, Bhopal is the second COVID-19 hotspot in Madhya Pradesh, with around 75 positive cases, eight to ten of them being cops.