Mangaluru: Immediate provocative action shouldn’t be taken during incidents that are communally sensitive, said Superintendent of Police Dr Sharanappa during a press meet held at the SP Office’s, here on 17 January.
The Beltangady stone pelting incident in Karya Grama under Uppinangady Police station limits happened between 7 to 7:30 pm. It is very difficult to say how it started since it was dark during the incident, and speculating will not help solve anything. “When our sector mobiles had reached the spot within 10 minutes, they could not control the crowd immediately as the crowd was huge. Five policemen suffered minor injuries; 11 Muslims and 8 Hindus were injured. A case of ‘attempt to hit’ has been registered against a group of Hindus who had been found with stones in their pickup.”
Speaking on the citizen’s responsibility he said that the police on their own cannot serve and protect the public unless the public is equally co-operative with the police. “We need both police and public for peace and to ensure that the bad elements are punished according to the rule of the law. The people of that area are peace-loving and wanted the situation to return to normal as soon as possible. Each and every person is responsible to ensure peace.”
The situation was handled by the Police with professionalism. The people were later convinced with dialogue. It took around half an hour to bring the situation under control.
There are a lot of bad, unwanted rumors spreading aimed at disrupting peace in the area. The objective of the press meet is to request the media and the public to not entertain such rumors. He also requested the youth to be part of the constructive society. “Technology can be a double sided weapon. It can be used for positive as well as negative purposes. Mobiles have been misused to spread false news through Whatsapp, Facebook etc. If anyone comes across such rumors, let them inform us about it rather than spreading it and disrupting peace in the society. We have also been taking preventive measures to stop the spread of such rumors and detect the persons responsible for spreading them.
When asked if the cause for provocation was a hate speech, the SP replied that is was too early to link the stone pelting with any incident. “Some bad elements wanted to create an issue. The larger section of the crowd would have reacted with more maturity and patience. The purpose of peace committee meetings is to convey that there are certain bad elements in our society, but we should not give into them. Immediate provocative action should be avoided,” he added.
“We have deployed 4 KSRP and 2 RAF teams in that area, and have been camping there.
Three suo moto cases have been filed by the police. No case has been made by any person involved in the incident.”