Two persons died and 53 people,
45 of them policemen, were injured as south Mumbai witnessed unbridled mob
vandalism for about an hour after a section of participants in a rally by
Muslim organisations went berserk. The mob torched one police van and one
television channel's vehicle besides damaging six other police vehicles, 49
BEST buses, a couple of other outdoor broadcasting vans and numerous privately
owned vehicles.
The police opened fire after all
other means to control the violence, including a lathi-charge and tear-gassing,
failed. One of the casualties had suffered bullet injuries, and the other was
crushed to death. Police commissioner Arup Patnaik said the cops had to fire
five rounds to rein in the mob.
Before that, however, two of the island city's
arterial roads, D N Road and Mahapalika Marg, witnessed mob violence of a scale
not seen in recent memory. Thousands from the rally, organised to focus
attention on the violence against Muslims in Assam and Myanmar, spilled on to the
streets, torching and damaging whatever they managed to lay their hands on.
Several newspersons, including photographers Shriram Vernekar and Prashant
Nakwe from The Times of India, were beaten up and Vernekar's camera was broken.
Cops were singled out for specially violent treatment.
A senior officer said the probe,
given to the Crime Branch later in the evening, was zeroing in on a group that
came from Nehru Nagar. "This group could not enter Azad Maidan, and there
were reports that it was the first flashpoint," the officer told TOI.
The violence and wanton
destruction of buses and other vehicles went on for about an hour before the
police decided they had had enough. A lathi charge and tear-gassing were
followed by firing as cops chased back the crowd. A section fled towards
Crawford Market, damaging more buses on the way, and some ran into CST. Train
services had to be halted for some time as frightened commuters found
themselves between the police and the mob.
Two persons, 22-year-old Mohammad
Umar and 18-year-old Altaf Sheikh (one from Bandra and the other from Kurla),
died while another person was admitted to St George's Hospital with serious
bullet injuries. "Seven police personnel and one civilian have received
grievous head injuries and are critical," said Dr T P Lahane, head of the
JJ Group of Hospitals.
Traffic constable Shivram Salve
was on bandobast duty and told TOI about how the force suddenly came under a
hail of stones. "Most of my colleagues suffered head injuries. We were
left shell-shocked," he added. Azad Maidan snacks stall owner Shantaram
Bhanu saw one of the media vans being torched. "No one was inside. It all
happened without any provocation," he said.
Private car owners said the mob
forced them out of their cars before pulping them. Several of them, as well as
BEST bus drivers and conductors, took shelter in buildings near Azad Maidan.
"We were told we wouldn't be harmed and fled to a nearby building. But
when we returned, every windshield and windowpane was broken," said T S
Hindoyar. Many passersby ran to the State Institute for Administrative Careers
campus beside Azad Maidan. "A huge mob was running into the lane and there
was utter chaos in front of CST," said one of them. "We decided to
wait and let two trains leave before boarding the next one," said Silas
Liba, a tourist from Manipur.
The Crime Branch took up the
probe into the violence late in the evening, and around 20 men were detained by
the end of the day. The police have slapped sections relating to rioting,
unlawful assembly and damaging public property on unnamed rioters. The
administration sounded an alert in Mumbai as well as sensitive pockets in
neighbouring regions like Thane and Bhiwandi. The police have been asked to
stay on maximum alert on Sunday when the kin of the dead may be asked to take
the two bodies.
A look at the build-up to the rally reveals
several failings that led to the conflagration. The organisers, Raza Academy,
sought permission for a rally by 1,500 people but, according to some estimates,
about 50,000 people ultimately turned up. Most of the protesters could not
enter the venue and things worsened when the public address system failed.
Officials later said the organisers of the rally had absolutely no control over
the crowd and did not have any idea of the number of people who ultimately
turned up.
But some former top cops also
blamed the police for their intelligence failure in estimating the number of
people and the intensity of the emotions on display. One of the injured
policemen told TOI from his hospital bed that the mob was
"uncontrollable" and that he and his colleagues were severely
outnumbered. Officials later said that around 800 personnel were there to
tackle the mob but "it was clearly not enough for a mob of that size and
ferocity".
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