Four cops injured in separate mob attacks in MP; data shows 600 police personnel assaulted in 18 months

BHOPAL: Four police personnel came under violent attack in two separate districts of Madhya Pradesh within a few hours on Wednesday. Two cops, identified as constable Avdhesh Mishra and head constable Krishna Kumar Shukla, were injured one of them critically when a group of villagers attacked them at Bakal police station in Katni district around 10 pm. The group of local residents had turned violent while protesting outside the police station, alleging weak investigation in an assault case. Out of the two injured cops, Shukla is stated to be in critical condition at a private hospital in Katni district. An FIR has been registered against five persons in the matter, and efforts are underway to nab them, Katni police sources said. The attack on cops at the police station in Katni district happened just two hours after a team from Dharampur police station was attacked by a mob in Gajna Dharampur village of Panna district around 8 pm. Two cops, including Dharampur police station in-charge MS Bhadoria and constable Ram Niranjan Kushwaha, were seriously injured in the attack by a mob while they had gone to the village to arrest one Pancham Yadav, accused in a culpable homicide not amounting to murder case. The two injured cops have been admitted to a hospital in adjoining Satna district. Heavy police force was deployed in the concerned village after the incident. Importantly, cops in Madhya Pradesh have frequently come under attack over the last two years. In August, the state government, in response to a question by former home minister and senior Congress MLA Bala Bachchan, told the Vidhan Sabha that five cops were killed and as many as 612 police personnel were injured in attacks on the police force, vehicles, and other police properties across the state between January 2024 and July 2025. The attacks had led to the deaths of five cops in Chhindwara, Shahdol, Satna, Mauganj, and Seoni districts. Maximum cases of attacks on police personnel happened in state capital Bhopal, followed by its neighbouring Rajgarh district. A total of 28 cases of cops being attacked occurred in the urban, rural, and railway jurisdictions in Bhopal district, resulting in injuries to 30 police personnel. The adjoining Rajgarh district reported 26 cases of attacks on police, leaving 40 police personnel injured. Out of these, seven cases were reported from Boda police station area one attack resulted in injuries to ten cops which is believed to house some villages inhabited by the criminal Sansi community. The states commercial capital, Indores rural, urban, and railway areas, reported a total of 23 cases of cops coming under attack in the last 18 months, which caused injuries to at least ten police personnel. Though Guna district reported only 15 cases, the number of those injured stood at 40, with nine and ten cops getting hurt in two separate incidents. As per sources in the state police, the high number of injured personnel in attacks over the last 18 months occurred when police raided dens of criminal tribes and communities in some parts of the district, which neighbours Rajgarh.