White beauty: Shaktiman undergoes life saving surgery to get wounded leg amputated

Even as this copy is being written, Uttarakhand Police horse Shaktiman is undergoing urgent surgery on Thursday evening so that his leg can be amputated to save his life.[caption id="attachment_2679546" align="alignleft" width="380"] The wounded Shaktiman. PTI[/caption] "Doctors diagnosed that blood supply to injured portion had stopped so leg needed to be amputated. Doctors were of view that horse might lose its life by tomm morn due to spread of gangrene,so decided to amputate leg urgently," Uttarakhand Police, DGP, BS Sidhu told ANI. Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi had allegedly attacked the horse during a protest by the BJP in Dehradun on Monday. Joshi said he had only hit the ground with a bamboo stick in front of the horse in an effort to scare it away whereas one of its hind legs had been injured.On Wednesday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat refused to withdraw the case filed against the Mussoorie MLA. Responding to a demand by BJP members during Zero Hour in the state Assembly to withdraw the case lodged against Joshi in connection with the incident, Rawat said police had lost a well trained bodyguard with injuries to the horse which had long been in police deployment in the state. The chief minister said he believed that the state government should not interfere in police's work and should allow the force to work independently.On BJP's charge that atrocities were perpetrated on its workers by mounted police, Rawat said in his view policedischarged its duties well without losing restraint.https://twitter.com/abpnewstv/status/710471064069877761Police registered a case against Joshi and his supporters under Cruelty to Animals Act in connection with the incident, while several animal rights activists including Puja Bahukhandi have also lodged a police complaint against the Mussoorie MLA for his "inhuman" act.When intercepted by police near Rispana bridge on way to the state assembly during a protest march on Monday, BJP workers tried to jump over the barricades prompting security personnel, including the mounted police, to swing into action to control the protesters.https://twitter.com/sanjeevrsingh/status/710469169607610368This enraged Joshi who allegedly began hitting a 13-year-old police horse Shaktiman with a stick, causing fracture in one of its hind legs. After news about the horse being injured during protests by BJP spread, Chief Minister Rawat visited the stable located at the police lines where it has been kept for treatment.Rawat asked sub-inspector Shyam Singh Chauhan, who is looking after the injured animal, to take good care of the horse in consultation with veterinary doctors. Rawat also asked Dehradun SSP Sadanand Daate to take the help of doctors of the Veterinary Hospital, Chennai."A look at the horse shows the excruciating pain the animal is undergoing. A political party should not vent its frustration on a hapless animal in this manner. Political workers must learn the value of restraint and tolerance. It seems the word tolerance does not exist in BJP's dictionary," Rawat said.With inputs from PTI