Mandsaur agitation: Terror on Indore trip for Bhopal family

BHOPAL: In a chilling sign that violence in the farmers’ strike may be spiralling out of the leaders’ control, innocent people going about their daily lives are now getting sucked into it. On Wednesday, a trip from Bhopal to Indore — one that thousands take every day — turned into a nightmarish ordeal for a family from Kolar. And police were no help in the mob rampage.
Anjana Tiwari, her two sons and niece cannot forget the moment of terror when they saw a mob menacingly advance towards them after torching a chartered bus right in front of their eyes.“It was terrifying and we are still not out of it,” the shaken Bhopal resident told TOI on Wednesday
She was on her way to meet her parents in Indore and had no clue that there was trouble waiting on the all-too familiar route. “On Wednesday, when I left Bhopal, I didn’t have any idea that I am going to encounter a dangerous situation which could risk the life of my family. We set off around 11.30am. My son was driving the car and we were expecting to reach Indore by 4pm. But when we reached Pushpgiri in Dewas (135km from Bhopal), we found that some vehicles were standing on the road. We stopped, too, and were told by some locals that we should not go ahead as a mob is on the rampage, wrecking and torching vehicles. I decided not to take the risk and we turned back,” said Tiwari.
She had no clue they were running into an ambush. “We were following a chartered Volvo bus, which just ahead of us. We were near Paliwal Milk factory when the bus stopped suddenly. Within seconds, a violent mob of 50-60 people gathered around the bus and started screaming. We saw passengers get down in fear and run towards the milk factory. Some locals rushed to us and advised us to get out of the car as ‘it could get dangerous’. We watched in horror as the bus was vandalised and torched by the mob,” she said. They got out and ran to a safe distance.
The Tiwaris’ Skoda was right behind the bus. “As the flames rose, I feared our car would also catch fire and asked my elder son, Yash, to move it. But the moment he got into the car, the mob reappeared and gathered around our car. They told my son how dare he try to move the car. They were about to beat him but he managed to get out and ran towards me, after which the crowd went berserk. ,” she said.