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On Saturday, a fringe right wing group assaulted Yunus Shaikh, an assistant sub-inspector in Maharashtra’s Latur district, forcing him to parade around with a saffron flag. The video above is of the crowd chanting "Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji" as they make Shaikh walk around, after assaulting him.

At about the 20 second mark in the video, when Shaikh turns towards the camera, the side of his face can be seen bloodied. He can be heard saying, "Arrey, jari mi Musalman tar Bharatiya aahe mi." ("Even if I am Muslim, I am an Indian")

On the night of February 19, Shaikh and his colleague K Awaskar apparently stopped a group of local youth from erecting a saffron flag in a "sensitive" area. "The group included Marathas and other Hindus who were celebrating Shivaji Jayanti," said LV Rakh, a police inspector at Renapur taluka police station. "They were trying to erect the flag pole at Ambedkar Chowk, right outside a mosque."

The next day at about 9 am the group showed up with 200-300 people from the village. The mob attacked both the policemen with fists and lathis, but while Awaskar managed to escape, Shaikh had to be hospitalised.

The police have registered a case of assault and arrested 17 people, but are denying that it was a communal incident, since Shaikh's colleague Awaskar too was attacked. They also denied reports of Shaikh being made to parade with the flag.

The details of the incident can be read here.