Mangalore: Youths clash in Kalladka, situation tense
Bellevision Media Network
Mangalore, 30 Jun 2012: Youths from two communities fought pitched battles using soda bottles at Kalladka, some 30-kms from here late on Saturday after a van that was illegally transporting cattle collided with a motorcycle injuring youths from a dominant community. The incident led to verbal altercation that soon turned violent with youths from either side resorting to use of force against the other.
Superintendent of Police Abhishek Goyal who rushed to the spot with Karnataka State Reserve Police reinforcements to control the situation told that the van than was coming from Belthangady to Bantwal hit the motorcycle, injuring the riders. "The entire area is strewn with soda bottles," SP said, adding police had dispersed the mob gathered in the area and was in the process of rounding up the miscreants.
Illegal transportation of cattle is often the source of tension among the dominant and the minority community in Dakshina Kannada district and even the smallest of incident tends to take communal overtones. City Police Chief Seemant Kumar Singh said Mangalore City Police too had stepped up vigil in communally sensitive areas of the city in wake of the incident and additional city police force had been sent to the area.