A police team was attacked and subsequently fired upon by illegal stone quarrying mafia at Gopibigha village in Rohtas district, around 160km west of Patna, on Sunday.
Two policemen suffered serious injuries in stone pelting. They have been admitted to a nearby government hospital for treatment.
The police team headed by Rohtas superintendent of police (SP) Shivdeep W. Lande launched an operation against unauthorised mining at the village under the jurisdiction of Dehri police station early on Sunday morning, four days after district magistrate Sandeep Kumar R. Pudakalkatti formally declared that no fresh licence had been issued to crusher units in the district.
The sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Sasaram, Nalin Kumar, and his Dehri counterpart Kamlesh Singh joined the operation, which started around 6am. The SP had informed the divisional forest officer of Shahabad, S. Shami, about the operation and sought his assistance, but the forest officer failed to reach the spot.
An unruly mob attacked the raiding team soon after its members started demolishing the quarrying units around 11.30am. At least 30 rounds were fired by the mob to prevent the police and the other administrative officials from carrying out the drive. The members of the raiding team were also greeted with stones, leading to injuries to two policemen attached with Dehri police station.
Besides, six police patrol jeeps and a motorcycle belonging to journalist Ravikesh Upadhyay were damaged by the attackers armed with illegal country-made arms. Their numbers swelled over to 1,000.
The cops used force to disperse the mob. But SP Lande denied the report that the police had to open fire to disperse the troublemakers.
"The police team was fired upon by the mob. But we maintained patience and chased them away. An FIR has been lodged with the Dehri police station against unidentified persons in connection with the attack on the police and the administrative officials," he told The Telegraph over phone.
The SP said over 100 illegal crusher units were demolished on Sunday during the drive, which continued till afternoon.
