BIJAPUR: Many posters and stickers, allegedly pasted by religious fundamentalists, were found all over the city on Wednesday night.
But, in a quick action, police removed them early on Thursday morning.
People came to know about them on seeing such posters pasted on autorickshaws.
Some of the autorickshaws (bearing numbers KA 28:6070, and KA 28: 4877), had the posters pasted on them.
The stickers read, “Our struggle for final and complete supremacy of Allah (in Urdu), involves Babri Masjid.” Police had employed some women to wash even the gum left behind after the posters were removed, at the central bus stand. These posters were pasted near media offices also.
Office-bearers of Srirama Sena, Ravi and Shivashankar, termed it as a threat by SIMI to disturb peace in the city. They added that they were trying to contact units of their outfits in other districts, to alert them to the possibility of such posters being pasted in their places too.
They said that the Srirama Sena would launch a strong protest if such things were allowed in the city. Many people called newspaper offices to know if the posters have any links with the Mumbai terror attacks. It is still not clear whether the posters were in response to the Mumbai attacks or the Babri Masjid demolition, whose anniversary falls on December 6.
When contacted, SP Arun Chakravarti said there were about 30 to 35 such posters pasted in the central bus stand and were later removed. The SP added that these posters seemed to be printed elsewhere and not in Bijapur.
He said that police were investigating to find out the source of the posters.
He also said that he had called the respective auto drivers and inquired about the posters.
They pleaded innocence and said they did not know who pasted them on their vehicles. They were let off with a warning, Chakravarti added.