19 more rioters held for Mumbai violence

Nineteen more alleged rioters have been arrested in connection with the Azad Maidan violence, taking the total number of arrests in the case so far to 43, police said on Wednesday.

The 19 people have been arrested since Tuesday evening from various parts of the city, police said. Two of them, identified as Niyazuddin Shaikh (28) and Mohammed Hussain Ansari (21), were produced before a metropolitan magistrate court which remanded them in police custody till August 28.

“We have CCTV footage in which the two were shown rioting along with the mob that indulged in destruction of property,” police told the court.

The remaining 17 will be produced before the court on Thursday. The 19 rioters were involved in various violent acts like pelting stones, torching the vehicles and beating policemen, they said.  Seven or eight of them were suspected to have a criminal background.

Two youths were killed and 52, including 44 policemen, injured on August 11 when a rally called to protest alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar turned violent.

The protesters went on a rampage, attacking the police, including some women constables, torching media and police vehicles, smashing cameras of photo journalists and damaging buses.

A day after the riots, police had arrested 23 people in connection with the incident. Subsequently on Thursday, Salim Allarakha Choukiya alias Ali (23), who had snatched a rifle from the police during the riots, had been arrested at Anand nagar.