Police set dogs on Indians

Press, 15 July 1976, Page 3

Police set dogs on Indians

fA Johannesburg The South African police set dogs on Indian traders yesterday as they fought with Government officials trying to evict them from their shops, the Associated Press reported.

The Indians object to being forced to move out of their traditional trading area in Pageview suburb, near downtown Johannesburg, to a new multi-mil-lion dollar shopping precinct built by the Johannesburg City Council further out.

Pageview, where Indians have traded for 80 years, has been declared a white group area.

The traders had defied orders to quit by June 30, and officials of the Department of Community Development moved in yesterday morning to enforce the order.

They began dumping clothing from one store in the middle of the street, and incensed Indians dragged the goods back into the store. No-entry signs and a chain blocking the entrance to the street were dragged away by the Indians, and an official who tried to secure the chain was hit.

Police with dogs arrived, and an officer warned the crowd of several hundred people to disperse within five minutes.

When the five-minute deadline expired the police set the dogs on the crowd, which then fled.