Bengaluru violence: 60 more arrested, including Corporator's husband
Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have arrested 60 more persons in connection with Tuesday night riots in parts of the city, official sources said on Friday.
"Continuing arrests in D J Halli and K G Halli case, another 60 accused arrested, including Kaleem Pasha. Total number of arrests is now 206," official sources said.
Kaleem Pasha, husband of BBMP Nagavara Corporator Irshaad Begum, and is said to have instigated the rioters, they said. The BJP took a dig at the opposition Congress following the arrest.
"Kalim Pasha, husband of @INCKarnataka corporator arrested. 4 senior functionaries of SDPI arrested. Still State Cong leaders trying to shift blame. Not condemning riots. Eyes only on upcoming BBMP elections. #CongressAgainstDalits (sic)," BJP National General Secretary B L Santosh tweeted.
The role of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) behind the mob violence in parts of Bengaluru, has come to light and investigation will go deep into it and their connections, Home Minister Basavaraj Bomai had said on Thursday.
Three persons were killed after police opened fire to quell a mob that went on a rampage in D J Halli and adjoining areas on Tuesday night over an inflammatory social media post allegedly put out by P Naveen, a relative of Pulakeshi Nagar MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy.
The MLA's residence and a police station at D J Halli were torched by rioters, who also set many police and private vehicles afire, and looted the belongings of the legislator and those of his sister.
Meanwhile, officials said, most of the arrested who are at Parappana Agrahara Central prisons are being sent to Ballari central jail.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
