Fresh violence rocks Mysore, 219 held
Police resort to lathi charge, cop stabbed
Fresh incidents of violence broke out in the Mandi police station limits in Mysore on Thursday as a ‘jail bharo’ by activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) turned violent at the Fountain Circle here.
The police lobbed tear gas shells and resorted to lathi charge to quell the mob, which indulged in stone throwing. While a police constable was stabbed, a few police personnel, including Assistant Commissioner of Police A K Suresh, were hurt in stone throwing. A press photographer, who suffered injuries, was admitted to a private hospital.
Police arrested 219 persons, including six women, in connection with the incident. As a precautionary measure, the district administration has declared holiday for educational institutions in the Narasimharaja Constituency on Friday.
Night curfew
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Sunil Agarwal, who was in Bangalore in connection with a meeting convened by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, rushed back to Mysore. He told Deccan Herald that night curfew would be clamped in the three police station limits of Udayagiri, Mandi and Narasimha Raja from Thursday till further orders.
Trouble began around 2:30 pm when a group of people under the banner of the PFI gathered at the Five Lights Circle as part of the ‘jail bharo’ programme. Within minutes more than 1,000 persons arrived at the place and took out a procession towards the Tipu Circle. They blocked the Mysore-Bangalore Highway for more than an hour. Senior police officers, through the public address system, appealed to the agitators to disperse as prohibitory orders were in force. However, the protesters squatted on the road and staged a ‘rasta roko’ in the lashing rains.
They raised slogans against the State government and demanded the release of 16 PFI activists who had been arrested by the police. A few miscreants threw stones at KSRTC buses damaging window panes. The nearby shops were also stoned by the mob.
Sensing trouble, KSRP and Rapid Action Force personnel, who had been deployed in the Udayagiri police station limits, were summoned to the Fountain Circle. As the police started arresting the protesters, the miscreants rained stones on the police and RAF personnel.
The police, who were taken aback by the stone throwing without any provocation, resorted to lathi charge. The RAF personnel also joined the police and lobbed tear gas shells. The protesters were beaten black and blue.
While ACP Suresh was trying to control the mob, a stone hit his face. Mahesh, a police constable attached to the V V Puram police station, who was on bandobust duty at the spot, was stabbed by some miscreants. The duo was immediately taken to a private hospital where their condition was said to be out of danger.
The whole place resembled a battle ground with the mob pelting stones from one corner of the road and police bursting tear gas shells from the other side. Some miscreants pelted stones at the shops on Ashoka Road, which prompted the traders to down shutters as a precautionary measure. The police had diverted vehicular movement till the situation became normal.
According to sources, security has been beefed up in Mandi, Udayagiri and Narasimharaja police station limits. Metal barricades have been placed at all entry and exit points to check unnecessary movement of people in the curfew-bound areas. City Police Commissioner Sunil Agarwal and Deputy Commissioner P Manivannan held a meeting at the Udayagiri police station on Thursday night to take stock of the situation.
DH News Service
