Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Dec 20: In a video that has now gone viral, policemen are seen rushing into Highland hospital in the city armed with lathis and riot gear.
The incident occured late evening on Thursday December 19.
CCTV footage of the hospital here showed police personnel forcing their way in, kicking doors of rooms of a patient, and trying to enter the intensive care unit (ICU) where they wielded lathis.
It is said that the people who were injured as well as the bodies of the two persons who were killed in the anti-CAA protests on Thursday were brought to the hospital.
Most of the police personnel were on duty in the streets, and only a small number were in the hospital premises. It is alleged that some of the protesters who had come to the hospital started pelting stones at the police and then ran inside the hospital, taking refuge in the ICU and a patient's room. However, contrary to this claim, it is also alleged that when the people had brought in injured persons, the police used lathis and tear gas shells on them, after which they ran into the ICU to save themselves from the police onslaught.
In the video, people are seen running into the ICU, chased by a group of policemen holding lathis. The police are seen trying to force open the ICU door and the door of another room by kicking and pushing.
A doctor speaking to a media claimed that the police had resorted to lathi charge on patients' relatives inside the hospital, spreading fear among the patients, doctors and staff. "I have never seen such things happening in a hospital," he said.
Eyewitnesses reportedly said that though the police came looking for stone-pelters, they lathi-charged everyone including attenders.
According to media reports, the two persons who died in the protests had been brought to the hospital with bullet injuries, and senior doctors were called into to attend to them. Both were later declared dead and police were informed. A crowd then began to gather at the hospital, and soon a confrontation ensued between the police and the protesters leading to stone-pelting. A source said that the police mistook even caregivers for protesters and started lathi-charging them.
It is also alleged that the police even used tear gas shells in the hospital, one at the parking lot and another in the lobby. Cars belonging to two doctors were reportedly damaged in the stone-pelting.
The police were in the hospital premises for about 45 minutes, it is said, and only left after the doctors assured them that the persons in the hospital were not protesters but relatives of the patients. The hospital administration too intervened and asked the police to leave.
Watch video: