Swiss embassy lauds police gesture toward attacked couple

The Uttar Pradesh police's "get well soon" campaign on social media, with the hashtag #GWSMarieAndJeremy, for a Swiss couple attacked by a mob in Fatehpur Sikri has garnered appreciation from the Swiss embassy, a top official said today.
Messages received on micro-blogging site Twitter with the hashtag were compiled into a 76-page booklet and presented to the Deputy Head of Mission, Swiss embassy, Tamara Mona, and MEA spokesperson Ravish Kumar in New Delhi. It was today released to the media by the UP Director General of Police Sulkhan Singh.
"After the attack on the couple, the state police not only swung into action and arrested the accused but also started a 'Get well soon' campaign, under which people were asked to use hashtag #GWSMarieAndJeremy to send their wishes to them," Rahul Srivastav, PRO to the UP DGP, told PTI here.

Both the Swiss embassy and the MEA have appreciated the gesture calling it one of the first such attempts by any force in the world, Srivastava said, adding that newspapers in Switzerland have published the same prominently.
The Swiss couple, who was attacked last month in Fatehpur Sikri, about 40 km from Agra, was offered a free two-night stay at a five-star hotel in New Delhi as a "token of concern" by Tourism Minister K J Alphons.
On October 22, Marie Droze and Quentin Jeremy Clerc, from Lausanne in Switzerland, were strolling near the railway station in Fatehpur Sikri -- a city founded by Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century and a major tourist attraction -- when they were chased and attacked with stones and sticks by a group of four youths.

They later told the media that bystanders made videos on their mobile phones as they lay on the ground bloodied and bruised.