Section 144 clamped on Kasargod following defilement of temple

Mangalore Today News Network

Kasargod, Feb 12, 2012: An air of communal tension hung over Kasargod on Saturday after some unidentified persons defiled a place of worship near Meepuguri, forcing the district administration to clamp Section 144 on Kasargod and its surrounding areas. 

V. N. Jithendran, the district collector, clamped Section 144, preventing people from carrying arms, holding meetings, forming crowds, or conducting rallies in Kasargod and its surrounding areas.

 

People are now allowed to ride their motorbikes between the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. as long as Section 144 is in force. 

Additional police personnel have been deployed from Kannur and Kozhikode in the communally sensitive zones, and currently, the police are patrolling the area in a bid to maintain law and order. 

Stones were pelted on certain houses in Choori and the police made some preventive arrests last night. Vehicles were prevented from plying to Madhur after a one-day hartal was organized in the place after the place of worship was defiled early in the morning of Saturday. 

Certain unidentified people wearing masks stabbed four people, one of who is in a serious condition. However, he is now recovering in a Mangalore-based hospital. This happened after some unidentified people defiled Durga Parameshwari Temple in Meepugiri. 

Owing to the tense atmosphere, vehicles stayed away from sensitive zones, but in most of Kasargod, people lived their life as normal. S. Sreejith, the deputy general of police (north), urged the public to maintain law and order. 

Madhur has, however, witnessed some communal violence.