Mob attacks Assam police station over trader’s ‘custodial death'

GUWAHATI: A mob of few hundreds retaliating an alleged custodial death attacked a police station at the birthplace of Vasihnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva in Assam’s Nagaon district, beat up the police personnel on duty and burned down the station after vandalizing it on Saturday.
The mob stormed the Batadrava police station after a fish trader, Safiqul Islam of Salanibari area, who was picked up by police on Friday night and detained at the police station died on Saturday.
Video footages captured by TV cameras showed a woman pouring some inflammable liquid on motorbikes parked at the station’s verandah and another woman throwing a lighted matchstick to start the fire, which very soon engulfed the police station. A large number of documents, seized items, including guns, were destroyed in the fire that turned into an inferno.
Before the fire, the mob ransacked the police station and beat up every policemen they could lay their hands on. Two injured cops were later shifted to hospital. The mob also pelted stones.