Violence breaks out in Gokak in Karnataka

The agitation for the creation of a separate district of Gokak in Karnataka took a violent turn yesterday when mobs went on a rampage, stoning Government offices and state-owned buses.

The district administration clamped prohibitory orders in the town after the mobs torched a bus belonging to Karnataka State Road Transport Cororation (KSRTC). The window panes of several Government offices were smashed and four buses were damaged in the stone-throwing spree.

The agitation for carving out a separate district of Gokak out of Belgaum intensified yesterday morning after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s Independence Day address made no mention of any such proposal before the Government. Though Kumaraswamy promised to form a separate district of Chikkodi out of Belgaum and Yadgir out of Gulbarga, his failure to promise the creation of a separate district of Gokak touched the raw nerve of the pro-Gokak activists.

Protesting against the Government’s apathy towards the long-pending demand of the people of Gokak, the advocates of the town boycotted the court proceedings yesterday and formed a human chain. The protest spiralled out of control with mobs from different parts of the town joining the agitation and indulging in violence.

Soon after the agitators began stoning Government offices and targeting state-owned buses, shops and commercial establishments downed their shutters. The police deployed a large number of personnel in the trouble-hit parts of the town and later clamped prohibitory orders, which bars gathering of more than four persons, in a bid to contain the violence.

The widespread violence in Gokak yesterday comes close on the heels of a shutdown on Tuesday which witnessed the torching of a jeep belonging to the Minor Irrigation Department.