Commandos posted in Bengaluru’s riot-hit COVID area
Bengaluru: About 100 commandos of the Karnataka elite force have been deployed to ensure law and order in the city’s south-west suburb where healthcare warriors and doctors were allegedly assaulted and public property damaged on Sunday night, a police official said on Tuesday.
“We have posted about 100 commandos in Padayaranapura ward to strictly enforce the lockdown and prevent any incident, as the COVID-hit containment area has been sealed off and the local areas people have been told to stay home, as dozen cases from the area tested positive,” the official told IANS.
Of the positive cases, three have visited the Tablighi Jammat mosque in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin area in March.
About 140 people, including youngsters were arrested under various sections of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) for reportedly attacking about 30 Asha woman workers (warriors) and 10 doctors as they were shifting secondary contacts of 3 COVID-hit patients from the hotspot to a quarantine centre in the city.
“The situation is under control with no incident reported since Monday. The commandos staged a flag march through roads and lanes in the area to instill confidence in the people, who were shaken by the sudden attack on warriors and destroying public property, including a make-shift camp, set up for the police and the healthcare staff,” asserted the state home department official.
The suspects have been shifted to Ramanagara jail in the neighbouring district to avoid crowding the central jail in the city’s southern outskirts after they were booked and remanded to judicial custody by a local court here on Monday.
“Additional Police Commissioner Soumendra Mukjherjee and joint commissioner Sandeep Patil are investigating to ascertain reasons for the incident and if others are also involved in it,” said the official.
In a related development, state chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa directed state home minister Basavaraj Bommai to provide protection to healthcare warriors, especially Asha workers who have been roped in to by the state health department to contain the virus from spreading in the southern state.
The two densely populated neighbouring Bapuji Nagar and Tipu Nagar have also been sealed as dozen positive cases were reported from there.
