Ready for encounters, will go ahead of UP: Karnataka minister - The Indian Express
A DAY after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he was ready to adopt the “Yogi model” to deal with “anti-national and communal elements”, his higher education minister, Dr C N Ashwathnarayan, said on Friday that the state government would “go five steps ahead of Uttar Pradesh” and was “ready to even carry out encounters”. “We are ready to send shivers,” he warned.
The BJP government and party leaders in Karnataka are facing a backlash from the party cadre following the killing of a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) worker, Praveen Nettaru (32), who was hacked to death in the communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada district on Tuesday night.
“The patience of the people is being tested by provocations. This is why our Chief Minister has said that such criminals and murderers will be dealt with mercilessly. We are even ready to carry out encounters, our Chief Minister has said in the government,” Ashwathnarayan, former Deputy CM of the state, told reporters in Ramanagara region, where he is the district in-charge minister.
“In the coming days, such people will be made to tremble in a way that they will never dream of carrying out such murders. The time for encounters has come. Our government will take strong action and will not allow such crimes to take place. We will create awareness and anti-terrorist squads. Such crimes should not happen anywhere,” he said.
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“Our government is working very effectively in all such cases, but people are still angry. Their wish is that such incidents must not occur again. In keeping with their emotions, more stringent action will be taken and we are ready to even carry out encounters. We will go five steps ahead of Uttar Pradesh. We will give a better model than the UP model. Karnataka is a progressive state and a pro-development state,” he said.
“We have been tolerant, and will show our action in the future. We are ready to send shivers,” said the minister. “The government will take every possible action to bring the accused persons to book. Wherever they are hiding or roaming, we will bring them and send them to jail,” he said.
“A simple and innocent man has been killed. He worked according to his beliefs and conscience. When such a good person is murdered, how much can we tolerate? Nobody can accept it. We must all condemn this crime in the strongest words. Everyone is very sad and angry,” said Ashwathnarayan, who was earlier being fielded by the BJP as its Vokkaliga leader for the southern region of Karnataka and touted as a possible CM candidate.
Seeking strong action against Nettaru’s killers, BJP and Sangh Parivar supporters have called for the “Yogi model”, referring to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s use of bulldozers to “control anti-national activities”.
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Asked about this, Bommai had said in Bengaluru on Thursday: “For the situation in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi (Adityanath) is the right Chief Minister. Similarly, there are different methods to deal with the situation in Karnataka and all of them are being used. If the situation so demands, the Yogi model government will come to Karnataka too.”
Bommai said on Friday that the probe into Nettaru’s killing would be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), calling it an “organised crime” with inter-state links
Meanwhile, a 23-year-old youth, identified as Mohammed Fazil, was hacked to death inside a clothing store in the district by a group of “four or five” masked men on Thursday night.
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