Police: During the Karnataka Bandh, Hundreds of Protesters Were Arrested as a Precaution; No Violent Crimes Were Reported

During the Karnataka bandh on Friday, which was organized by pro-Kannada organizations and farmers’ groups to protest the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, hundreds of protesters were imprisoned.

Over 700 agitators who attempted to obstruct roads during the one-day shutdown were apprehended by the Bengaluru Police.

B Dayananda, the police commissioner of Bengaluru, said the bandh was peacefully observed in the city, adding that there were no complaints of stone-throwing, the forcible closing of stores, or the stoppage of traffic.

As a precaution, 785 protestors in all were seized and brought into jail. However, he said that they were all eventually freed.

At Freedom Park, some 1,500 demonstrators had assembled to participate in the demonstrations.

Karnataka’s security was reinforced with widespread police presence. As a precaution, the Bengaluru Police had also implemented section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as of Thursday midnight.

Numerous protestors who attempted to obstruct the National Highways between Bengaluru and Hosur and Bengaluru and Mysuru by staging a sit-in protest were also apprehended by the police, according to official sources.

325 demonstrators in Mandya, the Cauvery region’s capital, were placed in preventative arrest before being released. Farmers’ association members staged a “rail-roko” protest in the area, shouting down the state administration for releasing water from the Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu. They sat on the railroad track to protest, but they were arrested.

In the Chamarajanagara and Mysuru districts, where no preventative detentions were made by the police, the bandh was observed in peace.