Bengaluru volence: Day after, peace returns to ravaged locality

Armed police units deployed in riot-hit areas, Video of residents protecting temple goes viral, MLA recalls horror

Policemen stand guard next to the charred Curfew clamped, security up in KB Sandra remains of vandalised vehicles. (Photo | Vinod Kumar T, EPS) 

BENGALURU: Kaval Byrasandra and surrounding areas, rocked by violence on Tuesday night, were peaceful on Wednesday after police imposed curfew and deployed additional forces. Meanwhile, police arrested 193 people in connection with the incident.

A video of Muslim residents, many youths among them from the Kaval Byrasandra neighbourhood, forming a human chain around a temple to protect it from being targeted by arsonists during the violence, infused the much-wanted confidence among the public.

The video went viral on social media. The police top brass also held peace committee meetings with leaders of the communities and instructed them to take youngsters from their respective communities into confidence. Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai visited KG Halli and DJ Halli police stations. The DJ Halli station was heavily damaged as rioters had set it afire during the violence.

With Tuesday night’s violence on a scale unheard of in Bengaluru in the past decade, police beefed up security across the city, with heavy deployment in DJ Halli and KG Halli station limits. Streets in both these areas wore a deserted look with all commercial establishments remaining closed. Vehicles that were torched on Tuesday night lay by the roadside as police, with the help of others, tried to clear them. Residents merely peeped out of their windows as police vehicles moved around.

Meanwhile, the three killed in police firing on Tuesday night have been identified as Wajid Khan (19), a cook, Yasin Pasha (22), who worked in a mutton stall (both residents of DJ Halli), and Sheikh Siddique (24), an auto driver and resident of Nagawara. The postmortem of two deceased was conducted at Bowring Hospital, while the other tested positive for Covid-19.

A group of police officers keep vigil at the spot | VINOD KUMAR T

The last rites were conducted at Khuddus Saheb cemetery on Nandi Durga Road, amid tight police security. Meanwhile, police who started the hunt for perpetrators, went door-to-door and picked up the accused. Within three hours, close to 100 people were rounded up and by Wednesday evening, close to 193 arrests were made.