Mentally challenged man runs away with police rifle
TURA: Curfew has been imposed in Mahendraganj border town of South West Garo Hills after an irate mob of several hundred people attacked the Mahendraganj police station with stones over rumours about a civilian being shot dead forcing police to burst tear gas shells and open blank fire to disperse the irate mob on Monday noon.
Curfew was enforced on Monday afternoon following the incident. It will remain in place until 8 AM Tuesday. A magisterial inquiry has also been ordered by Deputy Commissioner, Ram Kumar S who also promulgated Section 144 CrPC across the border town in South West district.
The situation is a fall out of another incident on Sunday night in Nandichar area of Mahendraganj.”A rumour about a man being shot dead on Sunday night ignited the incident on Monday morning,” informed district Superintendent of Police, R Ravi to The Shillong Times.
Police were called in on Sunday night around 9 PM by panicky citizens who reported that a mentally-challenged middle-aged man wielding a dao was trying to attack people on the PWD road.
According to the police chief, when the police team reached the site the mentally challenged man, identified as Ahidul Islam (35), tried to attack them. While attempting to evade the attack a police battalion constable fell into the flood waters by the side of the road. As he was trying to get up the mentally challenged man snatched his Insas rifle and began pointing the gun towards the rest of the police team. When he refused to drop the gun a sub-inspector fired a shot in the air from his service pistol but instead of letting go of the automatic rifle the man ran away with the weapon into the darkness and has not been found.
As police launched a hunt throughout the night for the man to recover the weapon, rumour mongers spread false reports that the man was killed in Sunday night’s firing and his body concealed.A mob of around 400 angry people laid siege to the Mahendraganj police station at around 11 AM Monday and despite attempts by the police officials led by the SP, R Ravi to make them see reason, but they refused to relent.
The mob began pelting stones damaging a parked fire tender truck and the windows of the station. The circle Inspector, C D Shira who was at the site was injured in the stone pelting.Police initially attempted to disperse the mob by firing tear gas shells but had to resort to blank firing when the mob continued to stone the station and even attempted to burn down the fire tender.
Following the blank firing the mob quickly disbursed.”Situation is now under control with curfew and Section 144 in place and we have brought in reinforcements from Ampati town and Tura . We are still searching for the man who took away the police rifle,” said the district police chief who is camping at Mahendraganj.Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar S has also stationed an additional district magistrate and the block development officer in Mahendraganj following the incident.