BENGALURU, MANGALURU: While close to 25 people have died and over 1,500 detained in the recent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) across the country, the agitation has brought to the fore the issue of police action, which many say crossed the Lakshman Rekha. Back home, two men were killed in police firing in Mangaluru during an anti-CAA protest on December 19. Use of lethal force against the protesters has raised several questions over the efficacy of the state’s intelligence-gathering mechanism, and the ability to handle protests, especially in communally sensitive areas. So much so, that Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, on December 21, is said to have expressed his disapproval of the use of guns against the agitators in Mangaluru.
“The CM was not convinced by the explanation given by senior police officers. He felt the situation could have been handled in a much better way, without having to resort to lethal force,” sources close to the CM had told TNIE.
Adding to this was Mangaluru police’s obstruction to Kerala journalists from reporting the aftermath of the violence. As many as eight scribes were stopped by the police and sent back to Kerala on December 20. This incident quickly escalated into an “inter-state dispute” with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan writing to his Karnataka counterpart, expressing concern at the turn of events.
Shortcomings
The state government’s own admission that the violence was premeditated and involved people from other states clearly exposes shortcomings in intelligence gathering, or the failure of the Mangaluru police in assessing the situation well in advance, and taking appropriate measures that could have helped deal with protesters, without having to resort to use of lethal force.Unlike in Mangaluru, where police accused protesters of turning violent and the latter blamed the men in khaki of using excess force, much bigger anti-CAA rallies in Bengaluru, Kalaburgi and elsewhere in the state did not witness any major untoward incident.
Intelligence failure?
Serving and retired police officers feel that intelligence failure was one of the major reasons why the Mangaluru police struggled to handle the protests on December 19.To start with, policemen primarily consider the task of intelligence gathering as punishment, and that affects the quality of inputs they get. Police had prior information about the protests in Mangaluru, but they either failed to assess the situation or react to it.
A former IGP, who had served in the intelligence wing as well as in the coastal region of the state, said that after the recent phone-tapping controversy, police are a bit hesitant to intercept phone calls, and that might have had a huge impact in gathering intelligence as far as Mangaluru violence was concerned.
Apart from getting information from its officials at the station level — considered to be the primary aspect of intelligence-gathering — the department also keeps track of social media platforms and other digital platforms to gather information.
On the ground, it was clear that Mangaluru police had prior information about the protests. Several Muslim organisations had approached Mangaluru police seeking permission to hold a mass protest at the city’s Nehru Maidan. The police were in touch with the organisers and had asked them to hold
protests in small numbers. According to sources, Mangaluru city and district police were in constant touch with senior police officers in Bengaluru, giving them regular updates.
“There was prior information... intelligence inputs with the police along with media reports that Muslims in large numbers were planning to hold a mega protest against the CAA. There was also credible information that protesters in large numbers from Kerala were likely to take part. They were determined to hold the rally. Mangaluru is a tinderbox and an extremely communally sensitive district. The police should have been better prepared with men on the ground and adequate infrastructure to prevent the escalation,” said an official source, on condition of anonymity. “It was the failure of the police to assess and preempt the violence from going out of hand. Clamping of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC failed to deter the protesters, who were by then determined to go ahead and face police action. Once the violence erupted, it went out of hand in no time,” he added.
Former DG & IGP ST Ramesh says the CCTV camera footage released recently on the riots — if genuine — raises many questions. “Mangaluru is known as a communally sensitive city. History of riots there shows that rioters indulge in guerrilla tactics like blocking roads to obstruct police mobility and pelting stones from bylanes. Police should have anticipated that the protest could snowball into violence and taken preventive action in the form of arrests, searches for deadly weapons, and put in place a sound bandobust scheme. CCTV camera footage and riots, leading to police firing, show police in poor light.”
Language barrier
Language barrier is said to have an adverse impact on the overall functioning of the police force in the coastal districts. While Kannada is the common language spoken in Karnataka, people in the coastal region — especially Dakshina Kannada and parts of Udupi district — speak Tulu. But over 90% of the police force in the region can neither speak Tulu nor comprehend it, as they are from outside the region. This, according to experts, is a major challenge they face in maintaining law and order.
Former IGP Gopal B Hosur, who has served as IGP, Western Range, says that police should have made preventive arrests. “When it was known that a large number of people would gather for the protests, additional police force could have been deployed in advance,” he adds.
What Mangaluru cops say As per police version, the “mob” tried to torch Mangaluru North police station in an attempt to take away arms, and firing had to be ordered.
What happened?
People had gathered by the thousands in Mangaluru city on December 19 to protest against
the CAA-NRC, despite prohibitory orders. As the protests spread across the city and soon turned into vandalism, police resorted to lathicharge. At Bunder, according to the police, many protesters were armed with stones, clubs, glass bottles and other weapons. They allegedly even tried to torch Mangaluru North police station and conspired to kill policemen. With the situation getting out of hand, police
resorted to firing in which two men — Jaleel (49) and Nausheen (23) — were killed. The state government had also announced compensation of `10 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. However, after police named the deceased as accused in the FIR, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa put on hold the compensation and said the government cannot give aid till investigation is completed.
