RAUTAHAT, MAY 29

Police fired over a dozen rounds of bullets in the air in Rauathat’s Ishanath Municipality today after a group of locals attacked them and health workers while they were attempting to transfer COV- ID-19 infected persons.

A team of health workers, accompanied by police, had reached Jokaha Madarsha-based quarantine shelter in Ishanath Municipality-6 to transfer two persons diagnosed with COVID-19 to Basabiti Jigadiya-based isolation facility in Garuda Municipality this morning.

But the locals, sceptical about the transfer of the infected away from their locality, started hurling stones at the police. Police then resorted to firing shots in the air in self-defence. Last evening the locals had vandalised an ambulance that had reached the site to collect the infected persons.

“As the locals gheraoed the police and health workers and resorted to attacking them indiscriminately with stones, the police had to fire 13 rounds of bullets in the air to take the situation under control,” said SP Rabiraj Khadka of Rautahat.

According to SP Khadka, a police vehicle belonging to Area Police Office, Rajpur was damaged in the incident. “In the wake of the incident, more police personnel have been deployed and search for the persons involved in the attack has begun,” said Khadka.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 30, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.