JOIN USTwo stabbed as communal tension grips Karnataka's Shivamogga over Savarkar poster
Two people were injured in stabbing and stone-throwing amid communal tension in Shivamogga on Monday as two groups clashed over displaying banners of their leaders at Amir Ahmed Circle on BH Road to mark Independence Day in the city.
Police sources said that a group of activists from Bajrang Dal and other right-wing organisations led by BJP leader Deen Dayal erected a banner of Hindutva leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at the circle, an area known to be communally sensitive, around 2.30 pm. The police managed to seize the banner with the help of corporation officials after a brief altercation with the group.
Meanwhile, Muslim youths gathered at the circle and insisted that they be allowed to erect a Tipu Sultan banner if Savarkar's banner is put up, superintendent of police B M Laxmi Prasad told DH. When the two groups started approaching the circle, the police caned and chased them away. Meanwhile, a few people were running towards the circle to hoist the tricolour. The police took away the flag and hoisted it themselves at the circle, he added.
Enraged by this, members of right-wing groups staged flash protests demanding that the authorities permit them to display Savarkar's banner. Deputy commissioner R Selvamani pacified the protesters. The police detained the agitators as a precaution and later released them.
Amid the tension, a 20-year-old man was stabbed in Uppar Keri area by bike-borne youths. Prem Singh, employed at a cloth outlet on Kasturba Road, was on his way home in neighbouring Gandhi Bazaar after locking the shop when he was stabbed. SP Laxmi Prasad told DH that the stabbing was not related to the banner incident but a random incident after the lathi charge. He also denied reports of another stabbing incident in the city.
Meanwhile, a youth, Saddam was slightly injured in stone throwing and admitted to the District McGann general hospital. Hospital medical superintendent M S Sridhar told DH that Prem Singh and Saddam were both out of danger.
On August 13, a man was arrested for obstructing corporation officials from discharging their duty at a photo exhibition of freedom fighters at the City Centre mall on Nehru Road.
Based on a complaint by the deputy commissioner of the city corporation, the police registered an FIR against unidentified youths. Later, Mohammed Sharief, spouse of a Congress corporator, was caught and produced before a court. He has been remanded in judicial custody till August 26.
Tension had prevailed at the exhibition for a while when a group of Muslims objected to Savarkar's photo along with other freedom fighters like Gandhi and Chandrashekhar Azad. They had argued that Savarkar was not a freedom fighter and the corporation had not displayed the photo of a single Muslim freedom fighter though many Muslims had sacrificed their lives during the freedom movement.