Two die in protests against Taslima Nasreen’s article

BANGALORE - Two people were killed, including one in police firing, as protests in Karnataka over the publication of a translated version of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s article in a Kannada daily turned violent Monday, police said.

Curfew has been clamped in Shimoga city, about 280 km from here, and prohibitory orders imposed in Hassan district, around 200 km from here, police said.

“One person died in police firing and the other of injuries from assault,” M.B. Pravin, additional superintendent of police at Shimoga, told IANS on phone. Shimoga is the hometown of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

The Kannada version of the article was published Sunday. Groups of people went round Shimoga forcing shops to close, pelted stones, set fire to many two-wheelers and several four-wheelers, police said.

After a baton charge failed to check the mobs, an order prohibiting the assembly of five people or more was announced but that too failed to end violence, a police spokesperson said.

“Curfew was clamped on Shimoga city after 4 p.m. and the situation was under control,” he said.

“The situation will be reviewed in the morning,” he said.

Protests in Hassan, about 200 km from here, also turned violent with protestors pelting stones and attempting to set fire to a few commercial establishments, police said.

Prohibitory orders have been imposed in Hassan, home town of former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular leader H.D. Deve Gowda, banning the assembly of five or more persons, police said.