STATE OF PLAY
Hubballi city in north Karnataka saw a communal flare-up on the night of April 16, the immediate trigger for which was an inflammatory social media post. Big crowds gathered in front of Old Hubballi station and the violence that ensued left 12 police personnel injured. Over 130 people have so far been arrested in connection with the incident. However, the incident has rekindled religious animosity in a city that had slowly shed the tag of being “communally sensitive” and had emerged as an important commercial hub.
While all the focus has been on the gathering in front of the police station, stone pelting and violence by the mob on April 16, there was a slow build-up to it, as the rest of the State too was seeing an escalation in communal incidents. During Hanuman Jayanti procession in Dajiban Peth area of Hubballi inhabited predominantly by Somavamsha Sahasrarjun Kshatriya (SSK) or the Pattegar community, laser beams of "Jai Sri Ram" were cast on the walls of a nearby mosque at Pendar Galli. The elders of both the communities had quickly intervened to resolve the matter.
