As many as 22 roadside shops were set on fire near Thokkottu after which police invoked orders prohibiting movement of people in groups in Ullal police station limits on Thursday.
The 22 shops on Olapete Road were reportedly set on fire around 2 a.m. on Thursday, two hours after a mob was dispersed from K.C. Road, two kilometres from Thokkottu. “There seems to be a link between the K.C. Road incident and this one,” Police Commissioner S. Murugan told presspersons here on Thursday.
It all started when a group objected to a few persons placing a banner related to a religious event at a place of worship off K.C. Road around 10 p.m. on Wednesday. The police said that there was a heated exchange of words, followed by throwing of stones and glass bottles. Four policemen and a few civilians were injured. Additional police force was requisitioned to disperse the agitated people.
Around 2 a.m. on Thursday, the shops on Olapete Road were set on fire.
“There is no eyewitness to the Olapete Road incident,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K. Santosh Babu. A woman, who stays near the row of shops, noticed the fire only after several shops had been destroyed.
Mr. Santosh Babu said that a few persons allegedly involved in the stone-throwing incident are being questioned in this connection.
The police said that a bamboo arch of a temple near Talapady and a shop near Meridian College in Ombattu Kere in Ullal were also set on fire.
Police presence has increased in the sensitive Ullal police station area and also in the Mangaluru Rural police station limits.
