2 newspaper offices attacked in Karnataka

The offices of two newspapers here were attacked by masked men on Tuesday night.

At 9 p.m., four masked men forced their way into the office of Kannada Prabha and set fire to the furniture in the lobby. They also damaged five computers, printers, and glass panels.

About 30 minutes later, the office of eveninger Jaykirana in an apartment complex was attacked by four men. Computers and furniture were damaged and an employee sustained minor injuries. Apartment residents said a large number of men on motorcycles waited outside during the attack. Offices of some newspapers claimed they received threat calls.

Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao told reporters the attacks appeared to have been carried out by the same gang.

Shimoga and Hassan, which witnessed widespread violence on Monday, remained calm but tense on Tuesday.

Monday’s violence followed protests by Muslim organisations against the publication of an article in a Kannada daily.

The article is a translation of an essay by Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on wearing of “burka” by Muslim women, and contains remarks that could be considered religiously insensitive and provocative.

On Tuesday, shops, hotels, business establishments, petrol bunks, schools and colleges remained closed and autos did not ply in Hassan.

Although the Sri Rama Sene had given a bandh call, its activists stayed away. However, the KSRTC operated its services and banks were open.

Entry points to Shimoga city sealed

Entry points to Shimoga in Karnataka, where curfew was extended to Tuesday following violence on Monday, were sealed.

The funeral of Sadiq (23) and Abdul Lateef (35), killed in Monday’s violence in the city, were held under tight police security.

Sadiq, a labourer from Tipu Nagar, died in a police firing on the MKK Road, while Lateef, a push-cart vendor of Vidyanagar, died in an assault by a mob at Tank Mohalla.

Shimoga is Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s home town.

Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Pankaj Kumar Pandey told reporters that 45 injured people were undergoing treatment at the McGann Hospital.

Police kept in dark

Shimoga Superintendent of Police S. Murugan said that at a meeting on Sunday evening, Muslim leaders reportedly decided to protest against an article published in a Kannada daily. He invited the leaders for a discussion, but “none of them turned up.” The Police were kept in the dark about the plan to take out a procession to present a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. The procession went directly to the Ameer Ahmed Circle where a large number of people had assembled. Subsequently, Mr. Pandey came to the Ameer Ahmed Circle to receive the memorandum. It was from here that the trouble started.

PTI reports from Delhi:

Shocked: Taslima

Ms. Nasreen, in a statement made available to PTI, said: “the incident in Karnataka on Monday shocked me. I learned that it was provoked by an article written by me that appeared in a newspaper. But I have never written any article for any Karnataka newspaper in my life.”

Dera rampage: Tension prevails in Punjab, Haryana

Tension on Sunday prevailed in various parts of Haryana and Punjab, hit by violence following filing of a fresh murder case against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, as authorities stepped up security measures to restore calm.

Four companies (nearly 400 personnel) of central paramilitary forces have reached Haryana for deployment in the violence-hit areas, including Fatehabad, Sirsa and Ambala, police officials said.

The situation in the affected areas in Punjab, including Moga, Bhatinda and Sangrur districts, was tense but under control, they said.

They said patrolling has been intensified while security has been beefed up at public places like railway stations, bus stations and shopping malls.

There was a report of fire in a bus early this morning in Panipat, though the police maintained that it was not related to the Dera violence.

Resenting the filing of a murder case against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by the CBI, sect supporters last evening went on a rampage setting ablaze four trains and around 37 vehicles, including 27 buses, and vandalising property in several places in Punjab and Haryana.

Dera’s chief spokesman Aditya Insaan had said the sect followers were not behind the violence which erupted in Punjab and Haryana after the registration of the fresh case against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Last week, the CBI had booked the Sacha Sauda chief for the murder of sect Manager Faqir Chand in 1991. Besides the sect head, four others were booked by the CBI in the case.

The sect head also faces three other cases including one of sexual exploitation and two of murder of another sect Manager and a Sirsa-based journalist.

The protesters yesterday set afire a compartment each of the Ferozepur-Ludhiana Sutlej Express, the Narwana-Kurukshetra train and two local trains after asking the passengers to disembark. They also vandalised railway property at Tapa, Moga and Kalaiyat in Punjab, he said.

The mobs had torched and damaged 37 vehicles, 27 of them buses, including an air—conditioned one, in Bathinda, Mansa, Talwandi Sabo, Bhagapurana and other places in Punjab and at Kaithal, Sirsa and Fatehabad in Haryana.

In Moga, the protesters had tried to set ablaze the District Administration Complex, housing among others the offices of the Deputy Commissioner and the SSP, prompting police to fire in the air to disperse them.