Bengaluru, August 12, 2020 (PPI-OT): At least three people were killed and several others were injured as police opened fire on demonstrators in southern India’s Bengaluru city, protesting over a provocative social media post about Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).
The offensive Facebook post sparked protests in India’s tech hub on Tuesday night in which a police station was attacked, and a politician’s house and vehicles were torched. “The situation is under control,” Bengaluru City Police said on Twitter, adding that police fired live ammunition to disperse the crowd after using tear gas and batons.
A police official said an emergency law prohibiting gatherings had been imposed in Bengaluru. Pant said the person responsible for the offensive post had been arrested. It gave the first name of the accused man as Naveen, and said he is the nephew of Congress politician R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, whose house was attacked and burned in the violence.
Muslim leaders and politicians urged people to refrain from violence. “There is a youth who is related to a local politician. He has posted that ‘I am not secular’ and then also posted a derogatory post on social media against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which angered people,” Maulana Mohammed Maqsood Imran Rasheedi, a top Muslim religious leader in Bengaluru, was quoted by Turkish Anadolu Agency.
“We have appealed to people to maintain peace and not to resort to any kind of violence,” he added. Mufti PM Muzammil of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind appealed for calm, saying that police had taken action against the provocateur.
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