Puttur: Vehicles, Shops, Damaged After Two Groups Clash
Daijiworld Media Network—Puttur (CN)
Pics: Krishna Studio Puttur / Arun Uppinangady
Updates at 11.30pm, IST
Violence in Puttur : Hindu, Muslim Outfits Call for Bundh on Mar 18
Bajrang Dal, Muslim Yuva Parishat, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP), have called for a ‘bundh’ in the city on Wednesday March 18. This comes close on the heels of the clash between two groups in the city in the past few days.
The Puttur divisions of the Bajrang Dal and VHP informed the media that the incidents of stone pelting and attacks on Hindus are the reasons for the bundh.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Yuva Parishat claimed that the attacks on Muslim youth and shops owned by Muslims, is the reason for the bundh.
Assistant commissioner of Puttur Harish Kumar told the media that special arrangements will be made for the students who have to attend exams.
Additional police personnel from KSRP and DAR sections have been deployed in the city.
Earlier Report:
The city continues to be tense following clashes between two groups of people on Tuesday March 17.
Students from a training institute in Mangalore, who had been to the city on project work, were questioned by a group after they were forced to get down from a bus.
The students were then allegedly beaten up by the group. Vishal, Rohan, Viswas, Zeena, and Kavya, are the students who were involved in the incident.
The clash started after some members of the group took the students to the police station.
A crowd gathered near the police station and the situation turned tense after a heated exchange of words and the police had to use ‘lathis’ to control the mob.
Sources said the students were returning to Mangalore.
Following pelting of stones by the mob, four to five shops and an equal number of vehicles have been damaged.
Additional police have been deployed to the city to control the situation and senior police officials also visited the spot.
Latest Updates 20:00 PM, IST
Some miscreants assaulted three male students who were accompanying two female students, all from a Mangalore college, after forcing them to alight from a inter-city bus enroute Mangalore at Bolwar near here on Tuesday March 17.
Vishwas, Royston, and another unidentified student, were accompanying Zeena and Kavya.
The assault on the students led to group clashes among local activists of Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) and other communal outfits. The girls were accompanied by two Christian and a Hindu student and the KFD activists assumed they belonged to their community.
The clashes between the two groups damaged the passenger bus and nearby shops.
The police force led by superintendent of police Dr Subramanyeshwar Rao arrived on the spot.
The police resorted to caning to disperse the crowd and also fired in the air. The situation was under control as on 7.00 pm on Tuesday.