On Monday, around 20 people got injured in Karnataka with almost 50 vehicles being torched during the funeral procession of a Bajrang Dal worker who got murdered on Sunday. The State police had to resort to the firing of tear gas shells and the lathi charges.
Curfew has now been imposed in the district of Shivamogga located around 270 kilometres away from the capital Bengaluru after the area was engulfed in protests. Harsha, a 28-year-old Bajrang Dal worker was stabbed by a group of men on late Sunday night when he was on his way to dinner at Bharathi colony that is located near New Thirthahalli Road. he died when he was being treated in the hospital.
Police have arrested 3 people namely Khasif, Sayed Nadeem from the Shivamogga district along with one more person from Bengaluru. As per reports, police has said that Harsha used to be an active member of the Bajrang Dal for the last 5 years and had also worked for a courier delivery agency. He was allegedly attacked in the past as well for his hate posts on various social media platforms.
The police have also suspected that his recent derogatory post regarding the hijab protests in the state might have angered some people. The victim’s pictures donning a saffron scarf while protesting in Sahyadri College in Shivamogga were doing rounds on social media pages after his murder. This was also in the context of the hijab row controversy that is ongoing in Karnataka.
There were several reports of violence on Sunday night soon after Harsha got murdered but police could manage to bring the situation under control. More trouble started at around 11:30 am on Monday during the funeral procession of the deceased which began from the McGann Hospital after his postmortem to the Rotary Cemetery located in Vidyanagar.
Although prohibitory orders were in place in the area, around 1000 strong gatherers had unleashed violence when the procession was passing through Seegahatti where the victim lived. The violent protestors ransacked shops, damaged private vehicles that were parked on Azad Nagar and New Thirthalli road. Several stalls were also vandalised and tyres were set aflame even though the police was heavily deployed in the area to prevent any flare-up. No media person or their vehicles were spared from the violence.
All the educational institutions, shops, commercial establishments, government offices remained shut throughout the day. There were about 1200 policemen that were deployed by the government of Karnataka. The District Minister of Shivamogga said that he would be urging the Chief Minister to hand over the murder probe of the Bajrang Dal worker to the National Investigation Agency.