Tension prevailed at Moolaholle on the Kerala- Karnataka border on Saturday morning after hundreds of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) workers took out a march to Bengaluru demanding the release of PDP leader Abdul Nasir Maudany from jail.
The Karnataka Police deployed over 500 police personnel under Muthuraj, Additional Superintendent of Police, Chamarajanagar, at the Moolaholle police check-post to block the march.
The Chamarajanagar district administration clamped Section 144 in the Gundlupet police station limits in Karnataka as a precautionary measure.
Vehicular traffic was rerouted at Sulthan Bathery since morning after the police closed the busy Kozhikode- Mysuru National Highway 212 at Moolaholle.
Close to 250 police personnel were deployed on the Kerala side of the border to maintain law and order.
C.K. Saseendran, MLA, inaugurated the march at Thakarappadi in the morning. Poonthura Siraj, working chairman of the PDP, presided.
However, the march was blocked at the Moolaholle bridge, near Muthanga, around 3 p.m. The protesters raised slogans demanding justice to Mr. Maudany.
PDP leaders said the march was only a token protest. If the authorities failed to release Mr. Maudany, the organisation would take out a march to the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, they added.
