Citizens assault police over Covid-19 SOP adherence

All four accused arrested after video of them beating up officers went viral

LAHORE:

A group of citizens in Lahore assaulted police personnel after the latter asked them to adhere to COVID-19 precautionary SOPs.

Footage of the incident went viral on social media, with several people seen surrounding the personnel and beating them, according to Express News.

 

According to the police, the officers were urging people to wear face masks when one of the youth engaged in a verbal argument with them. The youth later gathered his friends at the scene and the mob beat up the personnel, injuring them.

Police said that all four men involved in the assault have been arrested, while an FIR has also been registered against them.

Also read Lahore bears the brunt of Covid wave

On Tuesday, an official of the provincial health department said that a variant of the virus from the UK was causing increasing deaths during the third wave of the pandemic.

For the fourth time during the ongoing month, the province's daily death toll surpassed the previous record. The most alarming indicator was that over half of the deaths took place in Lahore.

Punjab government has so far vaccinated about one million people against coronavirus, including front line health workers and senior citizens.

However, it has failed to bring the increasing infection and death rates under control in the province, including Lahore.