E-Paper
700 protesters detained in Bengaluru, police call it a 'peaceful' strike
Around 1,500 protesters had gathered at Freedom Park here as part of the protests.
Bengaluru police detained a total of 785 protesters in the city on Friday after pro-Kannada activists and farmer groups protested against the release of Cauvery water. All the detained people were later released, said Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda.
Also Read - Karnataka bandh: 44 flights cancelled to and from state
Speaking to the reporters after the Karnataka bandh is wrapped up, the top cop said that the bandh ended on a peaceful note. He said, “There has been no major violence reported in the city. The strike ended peacefully, and a total of 785 people were detained. All of them were released later.”
Around 1,500 protesters had gathered at Freedom Park here as part of the protests. Security was tightened in Karnataka with heavy police deployment across the state. The Bengaluru Police had also imposed section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure since Thursday midnight as a precautionary measure. The police also detained scores of protesters who tried to block the Bengaluru-Hosur and Bengaluru-Mysuru National Highways by staging a sit-in protest, official sources said.
A total of 44 flights were cancelled on Friday which were supposed to arrive and depart from Bengaluru. This includes the cancellation of 22 flights arriving in Bengaluru and 22 flights that were scheduled to depart from the city, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Bengaluru, said.
Members of farmers associations held a 'rail-roko' protest in the district and raised slogans against the state government over releasing Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu. They staged a protest by sitting on the railway track but were taken into custody. The bandh was observed peacefully in the districts of Chamarajanagara and Mysuru where no preventive detentions were made by the police.
(With PTI inputs)
