Internet suspended in Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada districts for 2 days after violent anti-CAA protests

Internet services in Mangaluru and Dakshina Kannada districts have been suspended for two days after two people were killed in police firing during violent protests in Mangaluru against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

In a late-night order, Karnataka’s additional home secretary Rajneesh Goel said the internet was being shut so that social media platforms are not misused to spread rumours and to ensure law and order is maintained.

The government has also extended curfew in Mangaluru on Thursday after the violence till December 22. Except for essential services, everything else will be closed, officials said.

The state’s home minister Basavaraj Bommai blamed the violence on “people from Kerala who had come to comment trouble in the coastal district”. He said strict action would be taken against those breaking the law and no one would be spared.

Police opened fire after the protests turned violent in Mangaluru with agitators throwing stones at the personnel of the force in which 49-year-old Jaleel and 23-year-old Nausheen were critically injured.

They succumbed to their injuries late on Thursday.

Manguluru police commissioner PS Harsha said that police were forced to open fire on protesters in self-defence, and that 20 personnel were injured.

Thousands of people defied prohibitory orders imposed by the state police across several cities in the state, including Bengaluru, Mysuru, Kalburgi, Hassan, Hubli and Dharwad. Police had imposed prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC on Wednesday, prohibiting an assembly of four or more people at a public place, across these cities.

Barring Mangaluru, protests in most other cities in Karnataka were relatively peaceful except for some stray incidents of stone-pelting. In Bengaluru, hundreds of people turned up at Puttannachetty Town Hall the main venue for protests.

Chief minister BS Yediyurappa appealed for peace in the state and said “mischief mongers” spreading “false propaganda” against the CAA were responsible for Mangaluru violence.

“Do not pay heed to politically motivated provocative statements from anyone. It is deplorable that violence was triggered in Mangaluru by those who went by the words of mischief mongers,” he said.

Yediyurappa requested people to maintain communal harmony and refrain from destroying public property.

The Congress said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was responsible for the “breakdown in law and order”.