Indian Policemen Are 'Sanitising' Their Laathis To Deal With 21 Day Lockdown Violators
Indias 13 billion citizens will go under total lockdown for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said anyone going outside risked inviting the virus into their homes. Police across the nation are getting ready to deal with some unruly cases of people flouting rules.
India's 1.3 billion citizens will go under 'total lockdown' for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, warning that anyone going outside risked inviting the virus into their homes.
Since the announcement of the total lockdown police across the nation are getting ready to deal with some unruly cases of people flouting rules.
To deal with such citizens, a video posted by a senior police official shows constable literally sanitising the lathis that will be used to flog people. That's the level of fear among people and however funny it may, in these uncertain times people really don't know what to expect.
Preparation in full swing ??#Coronafighters pic.twitter.com/vCpVb3sQdU
¡ª Pankaj Nain IPS (@ipspankajnain) March 24, 2020
IPS officer Pankaj Jain tweeted a video to show ¡°full tayri (full preparation)¡± to enforce lockdowns in which a policeman is seen spraying disinfectant on batons before they are taken.
Police in India's northern city of Meerut are making citizens who break the rule hold up signs reading, "I am a friend of coronavirus," or "I am the enemy of society," before posting their pictures on Twitter.
??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ???????
¡ª Pankaj Nain IPS (@ipspankajnain) March 23, 2020
This #lockdown is for protection of you, your family and society , pls co-operate ?#Coronafighters pic.twitter.com/xc8gqJQQxH
Another video that the police official shared showed how the Punjab Police were punishing those who violated the lockdown, and was cheered on social media.
When you won't maintain #Social_Distancing , this is how #PunjabPolice will impose then ?
¡ª Pankaj Nain IPS (@ipspankajnain) March 23, 2020
Pls keep yourself and others safe
It's not a picnic time ? pic.twitter.com/GnOjUAmhxA
Mosque worker Mohammad Alim, 40, said he took a widow and her three sons to a police station in the city on his motorbike on Monday night to report an altercation with neighbours.
"When I reached the police station, the inspector handed me that shaming sign and clicked my picture," Alim told Reuters.
"I feel scared. I do not know who to complain to now," added Alim, who also accused officers of verbally abusing him. Meerut police tweeted a picture of Alim holding a sign that read "I am a friend of coronavirus" with the caption, "Some people do not care about society's safety."
???Demo for those who didn¡¯t understood pic.twitter.com/gwOEfqvbW2
¡ª Maulvi Jesus (@go4akki) March 24, 2020
The police Twitter feed had nine more similar pictures, with comments in Hindi, including, "I do not believe in the law of the country" and "I do not care about my family or society."
Health researchers have warned that more than a million people in India could be infected with the coronavirus by mid-May
India has already severed international flight links and will stop domestic air services at midnight in a bid to halt the spread.
Police broke up the longest-running protest against a new citizenship law in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh. Dozens of people, many of them women, had been staging a sit-in protest since early December on a street in the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood. In India 536 are confirmed cases and there are reports of 11 deaths so far.
Inputs Reuters
