Saturday’s clash remains nightmare for several policemen

Saturday’s clash remains nightmare for several policemen

J Shanmugha Sundaram

Vellore: Two police men attached to the Vellore unit of the Armed Reserve (AR) Police put their lives in grave danger to save a woman cop from an unruly group of protestors that assaulted her and dragged her away during Saturday’s clash in Ambur Town.

Though the two brave policemen – M Vijayakumar and P Kumar – managed to save the woman cop, they came under deadly attack. The mob wielding deadly weapons attacked them with sharp weapons, including that used to skin goats. The duo sustained multiple deep cut injuries and managed to escape from the attackers and ran for nearly a kilo metre.

While Kumar of them sought the help of a motorist to go to the Primary Health Centre at Madhanur, Vijayakumar requested a car driver to drop him at the medical facility. A head constable attached to Ambur Station had also sustained serious head injuries along with the two policemen.

M Vijayakumar

They are now undergoing treatment in the Government Vellore Medical College Hospital.

Close to 350-odd police men were deployed on security after over 2,000 Muslim youth gathered near OAR Theatre on the National Highway at Ambur to protest the death of 26-year old Shameel Ahmed, who died on Friday in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai allegedly due to injuries sustained in illegal detention. The protestors turned hostile and launched a scathing attack on the policemen that lasted for four hours from 9 pm.

Little did the men in khaki expect that the crowd would turn so violent leaving 38 of them, including 10 women, injured. What started with pelting of stones, ended up as a deadly attack on the cops and arson.

Thirty-four-year old Vijayakumar, a native of Kalavai, was stabbed in various places. He is now undergoing treatment for a deep cut that stretches from his buttock to a little below the calf, cuts on his back, left abdomen and his head.

“He has received 98 stitches for the cut on his leg. We have not informed our parents as they cannot bear the sight of him suffering in pain. He cannot sit on the bed and is in a lot of pain,” Velmurugan, brother of Vijayakumar.

Kumar sustained injuries caused by blades on his abdomen. One of the protestors went on to stab him in the abdomen. Many of the police personnel have sustained injuries that required stitches. One woman cop sustained severe injury on the forehead and underwent surgery at Christian Medical College Hospital.

Some of them recounted how the protestors were as young as 15 years. “We were wearing protective gear but many of the protestors were armed with knives. We were shaken when they launched the attack. They were huge in number,” said a policeman.

Some of the police personnel consider it fortunate to have survived the attack. The situation came under control after Inspector General of Police (north zone) M N Manjunatha arrived at the spot close to midnight with a strong contingent of policemen and reinforced the security.

The incident that had shaken up the district has found its way to messaging app - Whatsapp. Photos of the injured policemen with messages asking “Where is the human rights commission?” “Are we not human?” is doing the rounds on Whatsapp./eom/shan/