Second attack in 10 days: Cop shot at by mining mafia in Morena

BHOPAL: Ten days after raining bullets on the anti-mining squad, sand mafia in Morena district targeted police again on Monday morning.
This time, a head constable of the Special Armed Force (SAF) in the anti-mining squad was shot at near an outpost at National Ghariyal sanctuary. Vishvanath Singh Parihar, 39, was hit on his shoulder, police said. He was referred to Gwalior for treatment.Parihar was in SAF's 13th battalion in Guna and was recently shifted to the squad deployed at Devri outpost near the sanctuary.
The incident took place at 5.30 am when the squad tried to stop tractors ferrying illegally-mined sand from the Chambal river bed. The accused managed to escape with the tractors. Additional force was sent to the spot after firing incident was reported to control room.
Teams were dispatched to different locations to nab the accused but to no avail. A case was registered in the incident.
On March 21, a team of police and forest officials were attacked by sand mafia in the same locality. The murderous attack, sixth on government officials by organized gangs of criminals in a month, had turned spotlight on the rampant and unabated illegal mining in the state. State police's special armed force (SAF) and forest department personnel were fired at by a dozen criminals on Agra Mumbai national highway in Bandha village of the district, police said. The firing took place near RTO check barrier after the team tried to intercept three tractor-trolleys carrying sand from National Chambal Sanctuary area to Morena.