Daijiworld Media Network - Mysuru (SP)

Mysuru, Apr 21: In an incident which happened close to the forthcoming assembly election, people belonging to two different communities clashed with each other at Kyathamaranahalli here on the evening of Friday April 20. Stones were pelted, and over five police personnel were injured. Stones were pelted at shops, and the administration issued prohibitory orders under section 144 to control the situation.

Kyathamaranahalli has always been known to be a sensitive area. On Friday, people belonging to a community had taken out a rally to protest against rape and murder incident at Kathua, Kashmir, which has rocked the nation. Some young rallyists tried to force shops to down their shutters during the rally, which was objected to by people from the other community. This gave rise to exchange of heated words between the groups. Some elders who intervened, pacified people from one of the communities and succeeded in sending them away, after which, youngsters forming part of the rally rushed into a nearby shops and threw away things found there. Angered by this incident, owners of the shops and some local men objected to it.

At this point, the situation threatened to go out of control as the men from both the communities seemed to be heading for physical fight. The police rushed to the spot in time and dispersed both the crowds. When MP, Pratap Simha, visited the area in the evening, a group of men prepared to pelt stones but the police thwarted them from doing so by wielding their lathis.

Thereafter, a crowd entered a Janaushadhi centre run by the government and threw away medicines found therein. At this, the police again caned the crowd.

In the stone pelting incident, police inspector of Vijayanagara station here, Anil Kumar, and over five other police personnel suffered injuries.