Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Jan 17: A small incident that occurred earlier in the day in Shirur, located a little distance away from Byndoor on the district border with Uttara Kannada, gave rise to heightened tensions as the day progressed on Friday January 16.  With the intervention of the police however, the situation is under control, although still tense.

It is said, that during a local festival, along with of hundreds of others, a Hindu girl and a Muslim girl, both of whom are friends, took part in the festivities. Allegedly, the Muslim girl met her Hindu friend in an ice cream parlour set up at the festival site. When the two girls were returning home, a group of youth stopped them and started questioning as to who the boy was. Even after a few others escorted the Muslim girl home, the youths continued to mob the Hindu girl and exerted pressure on her to reveal the identity of the above boy.

When some passersby questioned those harassing the girl, reportedly the girl was forcibly taken to a house belonging to another community where she was locked up in a room. This gave rise to various rumours and a verbal altercation between groups belonging to two communities ensued. The Byndoor police sub-inspector Yogish Kumar intervened in time and after failing to convince the two groups to let go of the issue, took the girl to the police station. It is gathered, that a woman from the house where the girl was locked up, was also escorted to the police station.

Making use of the opportunity, some miscreants created road blocks by setting tyres on fire in Shirur while some pelted stones at shops and establishments. Several shops were forcibly closed. Kollur sub-inspector of police Sampat Kumar too joined hands with the Byndoor police in controlling the situation.

Members of the Hindu organizations in the meantime are demanding for the arrest of the youngsters who stopped and harassed the girl. The policemen are holding talks with both the groups to ease the situation. Babu Hegde Taggarse, Venkat Poojary, Rama Mesta, Pushparaj Shetty, Chandrahas Shirurkar, Devaraj Mesta and others are involved with the dialogues.