Mangaluru/Lucknow: Cops from BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are now tracking Keralites for taking part in anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in these states.
The Uttar Pradesh police are planning to put up posters in Kerala to identify protesters who participated in the anti-CAA agitations in the northern state, Manorama News reported. The UP police's move is based on an intelligence input that people from Kerala had participated in the protests in UP.
Apart from Kerala, posters will be put up in Delhi also. The posters will be prepared using CCTV footage. The police have also announced rewards for those who help identify rioteers.
Students from Kerala could be under scrutiny of the law enforcers of Mangaluru too in the wake of the recent violence in the Karnataka city on the state border. A circular of the Karnataka government asking to keep a tab on Malayali students has emerged. It was issued hours before the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent in Mangaluru recently.
However, Mangaluru Collector Sindhu B Rupesh claimed that the circular was issued with the aim of ensuring the security of students from Kerala. An error while preparing the circular led to the misunderstanding, she added.
CAA protests had rocked Mangaluru on December 19 and two people were killed in police firing. On that morning, the joint director of the Department of Collegiate Education, Dakshina Kannada, issued the circular on behalf of the collector.
The new circular gains prominence in the wake of the recent statements by Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai that people from neighbouring Kerala indulged in violence in Mangaluru during protests against the amended citizenship law. He also warned that strict action will be taken against those involved in violence and spreading rumours.
“People who had come from Kerala to participate in the protest also tried to set fire to a police station in Mangaluru and damaged public property. To control the mob, police had to use force,” Bommai told reporters.
Two men - Abdul Jaleel and Nausheen - had succumbed to bullet injuries they sustained when the police fired on hundreds of anti-CAA protestors who turned violent and allegedly tried to set a police station on fire in the northern suburb of the coastal city.
The Karnataka government on Wednesday withdrew the Rs 10 lakh compensation it had announced to the kin of the two victims.
Following the violent protests, Karnataka's senior Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah was barred from entering Mangaluru as the port city was under curfew.
Some journalists from Kerala were detained in Mangaluru while covering the death of two people in police firing during the agitations.
Protesting against this, activists belonging to the ruling CPM and Opposition Congress' youth wings waved black flags and attempted to block Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's car at Pazhayangadi in Kannur on Tuesday. In Thiruvananthapuram too the Karnataka CM had to face a similar protest. Several youth were arrested in connection with these incidents.
The legislation makes it easier for minorities from India's Muslim majority neighbours - Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - who settled before 2015 to get citizenship but does not make the same concessions for Muslims. Critics say the law - and plans for a national citizenship register - discriminate against Muslims and are an attack on the country's secular constitution by the Narendra Modi government.
Naxal alert by Karnataka Police
Bengaluru: The Intelligence Bureau has warned of Naxals attempting to increase their activity along the Kerala-Karnataka border areas which witnessed protests.
The CID wing of the Karnataka Police is checking whether the Naxals had any role in the Mangaluru violence. Former Naxals are also under the scanner.
A five-member team led by SP Rahul Kumar is probing into the Mangaluru violence and the subsequent police firing. A parallel magisterial probe led by Udupi Collector G Jagadeesh has also begun.
