Karnataka   

Group clash leads to violence in Mangalore

Special Correspondent

Schools, colleges closed for two days, ban orders in two taluks

MANGALORE: Miscreants attacked shrines belonging to two communities at two places in Mangalore on Thursday. A group of at least 50 people threw stones and broke the window panes of a religious place at Padil by the side of the National Highway 48. Another mob attacked another place of worship in old Mangalore. Both the places have been damaged.

Inspector General of Police (Western Range) H.N. Sathyanarayana Rao told presspersons here that in the violence that broke out Mangalore and Buntwal taluks and Mangalore city, 42 persons including seven policemen had been injured. The police had detained seventy persons for interrogation.

The police have registered 24 cases in both the taluks and resorted to lathicharge in 14 places and fired two rounds in the air. About 30 tear gas shells had been lobbed, he added.

Preliminary reports stated that 18 vehicles including autorickshaws, motorcycles and buses, had been damaged.

Mr. Rao said the district had 22 platoons of striking forces, and civil forces from Chikmagalur had also arrived. Police had made elaborate security arrangements all over the city and in sensitive places, Mr. Rao added.

A van belonging to a newspaper was damaged by the mob and three two-wheelers were set afire in Mangalore, Padil and Farangipet. Police had to resort to lathicharge to quell mobs in Kudroli, Farangipet, Padil, Adyar and Alape. They also lobbed tear gas shells in all these places and in Kalikamba road in lower Car Street when a mob threw stones at a place of worship and torched a two-wheeler. A wine shop and an eatery were vandalised in Farangipet.

Police opened fire in the air to quell a mob, which attacked a police outpost in Farangipet and vandalised it besides manhandling the policemen. According to Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada M. Maheshwar Rao both Mangalore and Buntwal taluks have been put under prohibitory orders. He will review the situation with the district officials and community leaders on Friday before taking the next course of action. Mangalore city and adjoining areas experienced tension following group clashes and stone throwing in certain sensitive areas.

According to police, the situation was under control but tense as the city observed the bandh.

Authorities have tightened the prohibitory orders in Mangalore taluk limits.

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