Call for peace from all sides amid blame game

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U T Khader has appealed to religious and political leaders to unite on humanitarian ground to restore peace in Dakshina Kannada district.

In a press release, he said that the attempt of miscreants to disrupt peace in the district will not be successful.

The government is committed to punish all those involved in the series of untoward incidents reported in the district in the recent past, the  minister added.

Compensation mooted

He said though two persons (SDPI activist Mohammed Ashraf and RSS worker Sharath), who were killed by miscreants belong to different organisations, they do not have any criminal background. The government will take measures to distribute compensation for the family of the deceased, he said.

The minister urged the police to keep an eye on rumours being spread on social media.

Peace utmost priority

Khader said that keeping forth the incidents in the district, Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje are issuing irresponsible statements.

Maintaining peace in Dakshina Kannada is the utmost priority of the state government, he added. 
Khader condemned the BJP leaders saying they are trying to politicise the issue.

BJP appeal

Meanwhile, Dakshina Kannada BJP unit has urged the police to release the innocents who were arrested following tension at B C Road on Saturday.

Addressing a press meet, Dakshina Kannada BJP unit  general secretary Capt Brijesh Chowta said that the vehicle carrying the body of RSS worker Sharath, who succumbed to injuries, passed peacefully till Kaikamba. However, fundamentalists pelted stones at Kaikamba and it in the arrest of innocents, he claimed.

He charged that the money raised through illegal cow transportation, sand and drug mafia, is used for funding such illegal activities in the district.

Chowta demanded the resignation of District In-Charge Minister B Ramanath Rai for failing to discharge his responsibility and thus, help in restoring peace in the region. The minister and Congress MLAs should stop interfering in the police department’s affairs and give the police free hand to maintain law and order, he
said.

He accused Rai of backing SDPI, PFI and KFD  and urged the government to take measures to ban them. In fact, the Congress-led government is withdrawing all criminal cases against SDPI, PFI and KFD and has given them a boost to take up such untoward incidents in the district, Chowta charged.

DYFI state president Muneer Katipalla has urged the police to arrest the miscreants who stabbed RSS worker Sharath. Condoling his death, he said that a conspiracy is being made to create communal rift by targetting Bantwal in the last two months.

Katipalla said that the district administration and the police have failed in bringing the situation under control. As a result, two lives have been lost in the last two months.

The district administration should have been alert after the murder of SDPI activist Ashraf, he said.
He urged the district administration to take stringent action against communal forces engaged in disrupting peace in the district.