MUMBAI: The mob that went on the rampage on Saturday didn't leave the Martyrs' Memorial outside Azad Maidan that stood a mute witness to history being ground to the dust. The rioters desecrated the monument built in memory of Syed Hussain and Mangal Gadia—two Indian soldiers who were blown apart by a canon in October 1857 by the British during what is called the first war of independence.
The mob damaged the memorial depicting a rifle with a helmet.
Mumbai mayor Sunil Prabhu and municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte visited the site on Monday . The civic body is now in the process of reinstating the memorial on an urgent basis. The BMC plans to have a fibre glass casing for the memorial to offer protection and plans to reinstate it by Independence Day.
"Work has already started. The state government should have taken a note of it and issued orders to reinstate it. But instead the BMC has taken the initiative. By desecrating the memorial, it has hurt the sentiments of all Indians and it is shameful," Prabhu said.
"If one has to vent anger against the state, the protest should be peaceful. It shouldn't be directed at national symbols. We highly condemn this. The first war of Indian Independence was led by a Muslim Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor," Samajwadi Party leader and corporator Rais Shaik said.
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