Representational.
Bengaluru: After the incidents of violence and communal tensions happened in Mangaluru, a coastal district in Karnataka, the state police imposed rigid rules regarding public conduct to prevent more escalations, NDTV reported.
Police banned public funerals, though an earlier ban on male pillion riders on two-wheelers has been withdrawn. Police informed that the prohibition also extends to sloganeering, putting up posters in public place and acts that disturb public decorum, threatens public safety, as well as those incite criminal activities.
In public areas, no more than five people were allowed t gather, no weapons, swords, knives etc., that are lethal are to be carried in procession. No one is permitted to light firecrackers or anything similar. Further, derogatory or inflammatory speeches, mainly targeting government institutions and officials, are also banned.
The restrictions are to be in force from 6 pm to 6 am from August 5. The state police, ADGP (Law and Order) Alok Kumar, reached the district to review the situation.
On July 28, a masked group stabbed a man to death outside a shop in Mangaluru. This is believed to be a retaliation to the July 26 killing of a BJP youth wing leader Praveen Nettaru.
After the July 28 murder, the district shifted to chaos. Later, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that the investigation of the BJP leader's killing would be handed over to NIA, which usually hands cases linked with terrorism.
The two murders that hit the headlines as well as questioned the law and order situation in Karnataka. The BJP worker, Nettaru, aged 32, was murdered in Dakshina Kannada district, while the other man, Fazil, aged 23, was stabbed in Mangaluru.