Traffic in the suburbs came to a standstill for nearly four hours on Saturday night and Sunday morning, as protesters took to streets in Bandra after a senior police inspector’s alleged assault on a senior citizen.
Protesters resorted to stone pelting and damaged four BEST buses at the Lucky Hotel junction. The situation was brought under control only after 3 am when the Rapid Action Force was called in to disperse the angry protesters.
According to residents of the JJ Colony, senior police inspector Samad Shaikh was on nakabandi duty at S.V. Road at around 11.45 pm on Saturday night, when Mufti Bilal crossed the road at the Badi Masjid crossing.
SI Shaikh intercepted Mr Bilal for jaywalking and allegedly beat him up in a fit of rage.
As the news of the assault spread, locals blocked traffic in the area and demanded an apology from SI Shaikh, who managed to flee the spot after the crowd started gathering.
Rather than leading from the front, Si Shaikh conveniently left his juniors to handle the situation. “We are trying to reason out with the protesters and ensuring that private vehicles are not damaged during the ruckus,” said a police inspector who was gheraoed but not assaulted by the mob.
However, matters came to a boil after local MLA Baba Siddiqui visited the spot, and instead of pacifying the mob, added fuel to fire by criticising SI Shaikh, who refused to return to the spot despite repeated calls.
“Mr Siddiqui left at around 1.30 am, as the protesters turned violent and went on a rampage, breaking the glasses of the BEST buses. One motorcycle was also torched,” said an eyewitness.
Meanwhile, in a letter to police commissioner Arup Patnaik and home minister R.R. Patil after the incident, Bandra activist Aftaab Siddiqui said, “Shaikh has started the Eagle Brigade in the area and has enrolled anti-social elements or political party workers. He appears to be the most unfriendly officer for citizens, and by promoting him as ACP in the Anti-Terrorism Squad (Shaikh is supposed to join his new post soon), the police is putting lives of innocent citizens at stake.”

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Japan PM visit in dec. to push n-deal talks
New Delhi, Dec. 18: India and Japan are set to resume nuclear negotiations in 2012, with New Delhi hoping that the forthcoming visit of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in the end of December will give a push to the talks that were stalled after the Fukushima disaster.
Mr Noda touches down here December 27 on a three-day visit for annual summit talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
This will be Mr Noda’s first visit to India since becoming the Prime Minister of Japan in September this year. During their talks December 28, the two leaders are expected to discuss a wide spectrum of issues, including the prospects of civil nuclear cooperation, jointly combating piracy and terrorism, economic ties, climate change and the evolving East Asia architecture, well-placed sources told IANS.
The two leaders are expected to review the status of civil nuclear negotiations for which three rounds have been held but which came to a halt after the March 11 Fukushima radiation disaster and the political uncertainty that ensued in that country.
India is hoping that talks at the summit level will push the process of concluding a nuclear deal with Japan, a leader in civil nuclear technology which derives its 40 per cent energy through it. — IANS