Assam cops resort to blank firing to enforce lockdown
Bogged down by frequent violation of lockdown by crowd in market areas, Assam police on Saturday resorted to blank firing in the air to disperse a crowd that turned violent and started pelting stones on policemen in Bongaigaon district.
Bongaigaon superintendent of police, Singha Ram Mili, told reporters that a police team while trying to enforce lockdown came under attack at Boda Bazar area. “We have arrested four persons on charges of provoking the crowd to attack police team,” he said, pointing out that the police team was asking people to close down all commercial establishments as per order of the government.
“After the market was closed, one Anwar Hussain and his associates attacked the police team by pelting stones. The police had to resort to blank fire to disperse the mob,” said the SP, adding that a total of eight rounds were fired. There was no report of injury.
A day after people thronged the vegetable markets across the state, Assam government ordered the closure of all markets except grocery shops and pharmacies until further orders.
Meanwhile, two girls from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, who travelled in the same aircraft and sat next to 50year-old Covid-19 positive Mizoram man, tested negative. Sources in the health department said that the samples tested at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) were found to be negative on Friday evening. The girls are currently under home quarantine in their hometown in Tawang.
Both of them had travelled in the Indigo flight 6E 939 from New Delhi to Guwahati on March 16. They travelled on seat 16D and 16E while the Mizoram man with his travel history to Holland was seated on 16F. This was the first confirmed case in Mizoram and the second in Northeast India.