Violence Erupts in Karnataka After SC Order

September 13, 2016 09:49

After Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu till September 20, the water dispute took a violent turn on Monday.

Previously the court ordered on September 5 that the state has to release 15,000 cusecs a day. Due to which, by late night, curfew was imposed in 16 police station limits. Even Section 144, prohibiting assembly of five or more people, was imposed everywhere across the city .

On Monday one person was killed and three others were injured in police firing in Bengaluru. The attack took place in the early hours as a mob belonging to a pro-Tamil outfit threw six petrol bombs at the New Woodlands Hotel on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai.

Within hours, at least 60 buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration numbers were set on fire in Bengaluru, Mysore, Mandya, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts. The bus drivers were severely beaten up.

Home minister G Parameshwara threw up his hands, saying, "We can't provide protection to every vehicle+ on the road. The protest over Cauvery dispute taking a violent turn is unfortunate."

After this mobs came on streets in western and southern parts of Bengaluru, indulging in arson and rioting. Cops became helplessly and appealed for peace on Twitter.

This violence forced the Centre to sought a report on the situation from the state government. Due to which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking paramilitary forces.

All the schools and colleges were shut down, sending thousands of children, young men, and women on the streets. Several IT companies, including most majors, allowed their employees to leave early and provided them transport.

In this processes one bus of an IT major was stopped by a mob and employees were told to walk home. The agitators even checked whether the employees could speak Kannada. Soon in the evening, another news gave a shock to the people of violence targeting Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu.The reports went viral on social media and Bengaluru witnessed the day's first arson when a truck was torched on Nice Road near Electronic City .

Chennai police have arrested four members of the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK) for the arson attack on the hotel. The men were identified as TPDK's Chennai district youth wing secretary M Sasikumar, 30, K Vasudevan, 30, S Vignesh, 24, and S Dinesh, 24.

A police officer said, "There are active TPDK workers in Royapettah. They had earlier attacked a post office and were involved in cutting the sacred thread of Brahmins in Mylapore." The hotel management was yet to ascertain the loss. It could run into a few lakhs of rupees, police said.