Nearly 40 people
have been arrested after a mob pelted stones at the old Huballi police station in
Karnataka’s Dharwad district on Saturday. The incident left 12 cops injured,
including an inspector. The attack took place after a man was accused of
putting up a post which allegedly cast the Muslim community in a bad light. Cops
arrested the man, and a case was registered against him. But this was not
enough for the complainants who attacked the police station.

What was the
trigger?

A man put up a
post on social media allegedly targeting the Muslim community. The social media
post offended members of the community who lodged a police complaint. Cops,
responding to the complaint, arrested the man and registered a case. But the
police action failed to satisfy the complainants.

Also Read | Teen girl’s plea to Karnataka CM: Allow hijab, stop our future from ruin

A large number of
people gathered outside the police station and started pelting stones at around
midnight and went on a rampage, according to Hubli-Dharwad police commissioner
Labhu Ram.

“Six cases have
been registered against those involved in the violence and the situation is
under control now…We have taken all preventive measures to stop the repetition
of such incidents,” the police commissioner added.

How Karnataka
responded:

Karnataka CM
Basavaraj Bommai has called the Saturday night rampage an organised attack and that
the state will not tolerate incidents such as this. “I want to tell very
clearly that whoever takes law into their hands, our police will not hesitate
from taking stringent action against them,” he said.

“…Whoever is
behind it and instigated the mob will be punished. I want to tell the organisations
behind such incidents, not to break the law. Karnataka state will not tolerate
it,” PTI quoted Bommai as saying.

Karnataka Home
Minister Araga Jnanendra said that one police official has been hospitalised
and is in a serious condition.

Karnataka’s
communal troubles

Saturday’s incident
follows a spate of communal polarisation in a state where this kind of communalism
is fairly new. Over the last few months, Karnataka has been stuck in a communal
quagmire with the ban on the hijab that saw large protests.

The rise in
communalism in Karnataka has also had an impact on Bangalore’s reputation as a
business-friendly information technology hub. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, head of Biocon,
tweeted on March 31: “Karnataka has always forged inclusive economic
development and we must not allow such communal exclusion.”

Disagreeing with her
tweet, Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Union minister of state, said, “There is no issue
in Bengaluru that is beyond the reach of government. CM has said that those who
violate the law will be investigated and prosecuted. Bengaluru is a cosmopolitan
city.”