Mangaluru Police find two ‘inflammatory’ graffiti in three days, suspect ‘pro-terror’ groups

The police suspect both graffiti were made to incite communal tensions and three teams have been formed to identify culprits.

Two 'inflammatory' graffiti found in Mangaluru | By special arrangement

Bengaluru: Three days after an ‘inflammatory’ graffiti was found on the wall of a residential complex in Mangaluru, a similar graffiti was discovered on the wall of an old police outpost along the city’s Court Road Sunday.

According to Mangaluru Police authorities, the text of the recently-discovered graffiti was similar to the earlier one, and read, “Gustak-e-Rasool ki ek hi Saza, Sar Tan se Juda (There is only one punishment for offending the Prophet, severing the head from the body)”.

The first graffiti was found on 26 November along the Kadur-Kambala road in Mangaluru and it said: “Do not force us to invite Lashkari-Taiba and Taliban to deal with Sanghis and Manuvedis #LashkariZindabad”.

The police suspect that the two graffiti could have been painted by ‘pro-terror’ groups.

Police sources told ThePrint that they were investigating the possibility that these graffiti were made with the intention of creating “enmity between communities and defacing public property”.

“We are checking CCTV footage from nearby areas for clues,” Mangaluru Police Commissioner Vikash Kumar told ThePrint.

Kumar said that the new graffiti could have been painted at the same time as the first one and three teams have been formed to identify the culprits.

A case has been registered under the Public Disfigurement Act and once the culprits are identified, they will be booked accordingly, noted the police. The two graffiti have also been erased.

The coastal belt of Karnataka, which includes the districts Dakshina Kannda — where Mangaluru is situated — Udupi and Uttara Kannada has often witnessed unrest between Hindutva and Muslim outfits.

Such an incident could further flame tensions and therefore, the police are attempting to determine whether this was the handiwork of ‘pro-terror’ groups.