The tragic story of Shaktiman, the police horse whose leg was amputated in a life-saving surgery after it was brutally attacked during a BJP protest in Dehradun, but died on 20 April this year, captured the nation's imagination.
A statue of the horse was installed in Dehradun this Saturday, as a tribute to this beloved member of the Uttarakhand Mounted Police. However, by Tuesday morning, according to an ANI report, the statue was removed from its location at Dehradun's Vidhan Sabha Marg.
According to an NDTV report, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat said, "I leave it for the next government to decide if this statue needs to be here or not."
Some people had opposed putting up the statue as they felt that the many soldiers from Uttarakhand who had lost their lives in service of the country had not received due recognition, whereas a horse was garnering undue attention.
BJP MLA, Ganesh Joshi, allegedly struck Shaktiman with a lathi causing multiple fractures on the animal's leg during a protest march organised by the BJP against the Uttarakhand government on 14 March.
