Hyderabad, March 29: Sunday turned out to be a Black Day for the flower vendors of Moazamjahi Market. It was around 1.30 p.m, when the vendors were on their routine business, that miscreants attacked them with lethal weapons and rained stones on them.
Many injured in the violence, in the aftermath of clashes between two communities, have been shifted to the nearby Osmania General hospital for treatment.
“I opened my flower shop around 12.30 p.m. and was busy with my work for about an hour when a few persons came to me and told me to close the shop,” a flower vendor told Expresso.
When he declined, nearly five of them beat him up and hurled stones at him when he tried to run away. “They deliberately attacked me as I belong to a particular community. The attackers targeted shops belonging to one community,” he claimed.
“A mob attacked me when I was returning from a place of worship on the MJ Market road. A few police personnel present there could not save me from the attack,” another victim said.
Another victim, Salalluddin, claimed that he was injured in the police lathicharge. “I was going home for lunch when police attacked me,” he alleged.
“I was going along with my friend on a two-wheeler when a mob hurled stones and beat us up at the MJ market,” said a 26-year old who was brought to the Osmania Hospital with injuries.
Osmania General Hospital Resident Medical Officer Mohd Rafi said more than 15 persons had been admitted to the hospital with minor injures since Sunday morning.
Chaos prevailed at the Osmania General Hospital too as cases kept coming steadily.
–Agencies