Activists and supporters of Campus Front of India blocked traffic at Ambedkar Circle (Jyothi Circle) in the city on Thursday in protest against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists’ alleged attack on a Muslim girl at her college in Bellare, Sullia taluk, on Tuesday. Forming a human chain around the circle, CFI activists urged the State government to take action against those named in the complaint filed by Sadira, final-year B.A. student of Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth Government First Grade College, Bellare, who said she was assaulted for not participating in the college bandh called by ABVP.
There was a heated argument between ABVP and NSUI activists who staged a protest in Sullia over the Bellare incident.
Meanwhile, the Sullia police, who had filed an FIR based on Sadira’s complaint, also filed an FIR on Thursday based on Vijay Anand’s complaint.
According to the complaint filed on Wednesday evening, the ABVP activists had “peacefully and without force” asked Sadira and her friends to join the protest when the group assaulted the activists. Apart from Sadira, Shaufiq, Junaed, Nisar, Sadiq, and Iqbal have been named in the FIR. As Anand hails from the Scheduled Tribe Mogera community, a case under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 has been filed. Incidentally, Anand has not been named as accused in the complaint filed by Sadira.
Clash in Sullia
A clash between a group of Hindu and Muslim boys, all 17 years of age, over a trivial issue was broken up by the police at Government Pre-University College in Sullia on Thursday.
According to the Sullia police, eight students of Government Junior Pre-University got into a fight over a volleyball game. The fight soon took a communal tinge, with Hindu boys clashing with Muslim boys. However, the police took the boys to the station and settled the issue with a warning to them.
PFI protests in Udupi
G. Rajashekhar, writer and president of the Udupi district unit of Karnataka Komu Sauharda Vedike, on Thursday condemned the alleged attack on a Muslim girl by activists of ABVP at her college at Bellare.
He was speaking at a dharna organised here by the district unit of Popular Front of India (PFI) against the alleged attack on the Muslim girl. Mr. Rajashekhar said the police had registered the complaint by the Muslim girl with some reluctance. They had also registered a counter-complaint by activists of ABVP. This was a classic tactic adopted by the police in coastal districts.
Hayavadana Moodusagri, writer, spoke.
Keywords: ABVP, Campus Front of India, Karnataka politics
