Prohibitory orders were clamped across four police station limits in Bengaluru on Monday (6 am to midnight), after RSS worker R.Rudresh(35) was hacked to death by two unidentified bike-borne assailants in Shivajinagar on Sunday noon.
The RSS and the BJP have called for a bandh in Shivajinagar and threatened to picket the police commissioner's office, demanding swift action in nabbing the culprits.
Rudresh, a resident of Kamaraja street, had been recently appointed the mandal president of RSS shakha in Shivajinagar. On Sunday, he took part in the RSS path sanchalan and returned home to drop his kids. The attack occurred when he ventured out again, still dressed in his party attire. He was attacked with a machete while chatting with friends. He breathed his last on the way to Bowring hospital. He leaves behind a wife, two daughters and eight siblings.
Tension prevailed in the area as BJP and RSS workers turned up in huge numbers and took out a protest rally. Former home minister R Ashok alleged that it was a conspiracy hatched by the killers to punish Rudresh for his affiliation with the BJP and the RSS. "The police should not attribute motives like personal rivalry or business dispute before the investigation. Rudresh had organized 'Ganesh Utsav' in Shivaji circle for the first time, which some people resisted," said Ashok. BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa condemned the killing and alleged that RSS workers were being targeted. He recalled the recent attacks on right-wing workers in the state.
In a strange coincidence, MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who was in town to take part in a seminar organised by Manthan, a thinkers' forum, was condemning the communist violence against right-wing workers in Kerala and expressed concern over the spread of such ideology of hatred in Karnataka too.
Meanwhile, the police imposed prohibitory orders in Shivajinagar, Commercial Street, Bharathinagar and Pulakeshinagar police station limits on Monday and deployed over 1,000 policemen to avert untoward incidents. Six special teams were formed to track down the culprits.
Despite the prohibitory orders, BJP launched a massive protest in Shivajinagar. "If the police is incapable of providing protection to BJP and RSS workers, give us the license to possess arms. We will defend ourselves. We are tired of our party workers being targeted. We cannot allow any more families to suffer. Karnataka should not be another Kerala," said former law minister S Suresh Kumar.
"Stop politically motivated and government sponsored violence against right-wing workers. What is stopping the police from arresting the killers of Kuttappa in Madikeri, Raju in Mysuru and Rudresh in Bengaluru? Ban KFD and other terror outfits," said MP Shobha Karandlaje.
