While the incident of a Merces attack by the local goons on the tourists’ bus is still fresh in the memory, another incident of an attack on tourists took place at Verem in North Goa on the Sao Joao. According to the sources, a group of drunk locals, in the celebration mood of Sao Joao had attacked the tourist bus and injured two tourists at Verem. There are no police complaints had been lodged as yet but two tourists have seriously got injured after the local youth hit the beer bottles on their heads.
Based on the information available from reliable sources, the group of local youth was celebrating the Sao Joao at Verem in North Goa, when the tourist bus with Maharastra registration arrived at Verem. The locals, under the influence of liquor, started misbehaving with the tourists and asked them not to park their buses in that vicinity. The objection taken by the locals resulted in a verbal scuffle between the tourists and locals, which soon took an ugly turn, and the group of youth attacked on the bus.
According to the sources, the Merces incident had already led to spoiling the image of the tourism industry in Goa, and the new incident of attack on the tourists at Verem had only played the role of putting fuel in the fire. Meanwhile, as there is no police complaint of this incident from either party, the non-intervention of the police may give more encouragement to such incidents in the state, said the sources.
It may be recalled that in the attack of the local goons on the Tourists at Merces, it was the tourists who had caught the goons and handed them over to the local police. The police reached the spot much after the attack on the tourists. But in the case of Verem, the police did not even appear.
According to the sources at Verem, a group of local youth was celebrating the Sao Joao festival at Verem Manas (sluice gate), and most of them were under the influence of liquor. At the same time, one tourist bus with Maharashtra Registration arrived there. The local youth who were already under the influence of liquor took an objection to park the bus in the vicinity, which led to starting the verbal scuffle.
The sources further stated that, after the youth took objection, the bus driver decided to turn the bus and leave, but while taking a turn, the group of youth stopped the bus and staged the attack on the tourists.
Getting panicked with the sudden attack, all the tourists (most of them male) came out of the bus to retaliate. Looking at the strong assembly of the tourists, the local youth decided to escape from the scene. But before leaving they attacked two tourists and injured them by hitting the liquor bottles on their head, causing them serious injuries, said the sources.
The bus left from the spot along with the injured tourists to admit them into the hospital. According to one local youth Vijay Redkar, The tourist bus was in process of taking a turn when the group of four locals came and attacked the bus and injured the tourists. “Initially the local youth who were under the influence of Alcohol started the fight but when they saw the numbers of the tourists is more, they decided to escape from the scene, but by the time group of tourists who were much more in number decided to counter-attack on the locals which resulted into local youth getting dispersed.”
According to the eyewitness, the bus was filled with male tourists and they were much more in number. After the fights both the parties decide not to lodge the complaint to avoid the legal hassles, said the sources.
The responsible citizens of the locality feel that it is the high time that police should take a Suo moto action against the culprits and arrest the youth who were involved in the attack on the tourists. What is your opinion? do you think the police need to take serious cognizance of such cases and arrest the culprits? Does the action from the police will lead to sending a strong message across? What action does the tourism ministry will be going to take? Please share your valuable comments and suggestions on this serious issue.
SOURCE: VARIOUS SOURCES
