AMN
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought a report from Uttar Pradesh government over alleged attack on foreign tourists in Mirzapur.
A group of French tourists along with an Indian woman were on Sunday allegedly beaten up in the area. Meanwhile, eight accused have been arrested by the state police in the incident.
According to reports a group of six French tourists, along with their friends from India, were allegedly harassed on a visit to a waterfall in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, as per various media reports.
It is reported that when the tourists were almost done with their visit, a couple of young men passed lewd remarks at the women in the group. This led to an argument which turned into a fight soon. The men left but soon returned with 10 others. One of the tourists was injured in the fight that followed. However, the Police said the French nationals were not attacked and got scratches as they were trying to stop the scuffle.
Pictures of blood on the French tourists had begun doing the rounds on social media soon after the incident. “Some of the local boys abused, molested and thrashed all the tourists,” an Indian friend of the tourists told a news agency. “When I tried to stop the attackers, they also started thrashing me. The attackers called more people to attack us. In defense, we also started attacking them.” The injured were taken to a local hospital. One of the tourists said they were attacked with sticks. A case was registered against 13 people.
Tourism Minister KJ Alphons called the Mirzapur tourist attack deplorable. He said, “We must ensure people accept foreigners are coming in and they want privacy, they don’t want to be interfered with, if every guy out there wants to have a selfie with tourists, it will make it impossible for people to visit”.
Notably, this is the second such attack in the state in the last two months. Last month, a couple from Switzerland was attacked in Agra for protesting against local residents’ attempts to take photographs with them. The Swiss man suffered fractures. Both were taken to the Apollo Hospital in Delhi. Acting firmly on the incident, the UP Police had then rounded up more than 50 touts who target foreign visitors at Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, and Taj Mahal and booked them for harassment and disturbing the public peace.
