Sixteen men have been arrested after a female forest official was brutally beaten with sticks by a mob as police officers watched in the southern Indian state of Telangana.
The mob, led by a member of the state’s ruling party, was protesting against a tree plantation drive on Sunday.
A video of the incident has gone viral, and the party’s president has condemned the attack on Twitter.
The forest officer is being treated in hospital for severe injuries.
A video of the incident shows the mob attacking the officer with bamboo sticks, as she stands on a tractor and tries to placate them.
She is repeatedly hit with the sticks until forest officials and local police step in to disperse the mob and contain the attack.
The footage has gone viral in India and led to outrage across the country.
This prompted a high-ranking official of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party, Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, to condemn the incident on Twitter.
SOURCE: BBC News
