Bhatkal: Brakes were applied to the BJP Yuva Morcha Mangalore Chalo bike rally by the police personnel in Bhatkal as they took around 65 people into police custody on 6th September, Wednesday including several BJP leaders.
Around 2:00 pm on Wednesday, the BJP leaders gathered at Jali in the taluk with bikes and moving through Hanuman Nagar, arrived at the Shamshuddin Circle and were all set to depart for Mangaluru. However, the police department which was already prepared for such situation, arrived at the spot at around 3:00 pm and seized all the bikes which were involved in the rally.
The police transferred the BJP workers who had participated in the rally to Murdeshwar in a Government bus and kept the there until evening.
Addressing at the rally, BJP district president K G Naik said that Sangh Parivar activists are being killed in the state and no action is being taken regarding it. He said that Struggle is their right and they will participate in the Mangalore Chalo bike rally at any cost.
During the rally traffic was blocked for around half an hour which was later cleared by the police.
Former Assembly Member J D Naik, Bhatkal BJP president Rajesh Naik, District Yuva Morcha president Manjunath Jnu, Mahila Morcha president Rekha Hegde, Sunil B Naik, Lakshman Naik, Subrai Devadiga and others were present during the rally.
In order to maintain law and order, security arrangements were supervised in the town by District SP Vinayak Patel, ASP Gopal Baikod, DySP Shivkumar, CBI Suresh Naik and other police personnel.
The bike rally by the BJP Yuva Morcha was against the alleged murder of 18 Hindu activists and repeated incidents of violence against them in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.
However permission for the rally has been denied by authorities in various parts of the state such as Yellapur, Mangaluru, Kumta, etc and BJP leaders and workers have been detained for participating in the rally.
"If the government has the guts they should have allowed us to protest. They are using police against us. It is our right as an opposition party to protest against the government and we will go ahead with our rally," the BJP leaders said after being denied the permission for the rally by the authorities.