Syed Sujeel Ahmed | India Tomorrow

BENGALURU, AUGUST 12—Three persons were killed in police firing and over 100, including an SDPI leader Muzammil Pasha, arrested in the violence in northeastern Bengaluru that took place on Tuesday night after the relative of a Congress MLA posted derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammed along with questioning Muslims on Babri Masjid on his Facebook page.

According to police reports, 60 others were injured, three of them in serious condition. Curfew has been clamped on violence-hit areas under Banaswadi Police Sub-Division.

The one who posted derogatory materials has been identified as P Naveen, a nephew of Akhand Srinivas Murthy, a Congress MLA from Pulikeshinagar constituency. Navin as well as the MLA are Dalits.

On Tuesday evening, protesters reached the MLA’s house located at Kaval Byrasandra to lodge their protest with the MLA, when they came to know that the MLA was not available at his house, they staged a protest.

Murthy immediately released a video message to quell the mob and said strict action will be taken against the culprit and he did not endorse the views.

Soon after, Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed from Chamrajpet constituency of Bengaluru Urban, who is close to Murthy, reached the D.J.Halli Police station and lodged a complaint against Naveen.

Situation got out of control at about 10.30-11 pm Tuesday night when some miscreants joined the protesters and started vandalizing and throwing stones at the residence of the MLA. They also attacked D.J.Halli Police Station and burnt vehicles. At about 11.45 pm, Zameer posted a tweet appealing people to keep calm.

P Naveen is a regular on political posters put out in Kaval Byrasandra trying to shape his political career. The posts allegedly involved derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammed along with questioning Muslims on Babri Masjid.

According to reports, a total of 3 protestors from D.J.Halli have died in police firing. More than 100 have been arrested. Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the police had been “given a free hand” to stop the violence.

To disperse the protesters, the police opened fire, used tear gas and resorted to baton-charging.  Over 60 have been injured in police action and 3 are said to be critical.

Following the violence and deaths, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibits the gathering of four or more people at a place, has been imposed in Bengaluru Urban and curfew has been clamped in D.J Halli, K.G Halli and Kaval Byrasandra areas.

Muslims Youths Form Human Chain to Safeguard Temple

Sensing escalation of violence, late Tuesday night Muslim youths formed a human chain in front of DJ Halli’s biggest temple to safeguard the temple from miscreants. About 100 youths were seen covering the entire boundaries of the temple. DJ Halli and KJ Halli areas have sizeable population of Tamils and Muslims.

Netizens question the timing of the violence

Netizens have questioned the timing of the violence as the elections to the Bengaluru Corporation or Buruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) are due any time in the next few months. Many wards in BBMP from Pulikeshinagar assembly constituency are represented by the Congress and the JD(S) corporators. Political analysts say that this appears to be a conspiracy to split the Muslim and Dalit votes with a view to weaken the Congress and enable BJP-backed JD(S) to win the corporations polls from the area.

Murthy was a JD(S) MLA in the previous assembly and switched to the Congress in May 2018 assembly elections. Murthy won the 2018 assembly elections from Pulikeshinagar constituency with the second highest victory margin in Karnataka, second only to current Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivkumar. All the violence hit areas fall under Murthy’s constituency.