Bandh in Dakshina Kannada district to protest the killing of a BJP youth wing leader

Mangaluru: Shop owners in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district downed shutters on Wednesday in response to a bandh call given by the VHP to protest the killing of a BJP youth wing leader.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has called for a hartal in Sullia, Kadaba and Puttur taluks.

Incidents of stone-pelting at government buses were reported from some places. A bus plying from Puttur to Mangaluru was damaged in the stone-pelting incident at Bolwar.

Meanwhile, the body of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district committee member Praveen Nettaru was taken in a procession in an ambulance to Nettaru by activists of Sangh organisations.

The last rites of the youth leader will be performed at his native place Nettaru. Hundreds of young activists belonging to various Hindu organisations have gathered at the spot.

Security has been beefed up across the communally sensitive district following the murder. Police have formed four separate teams to nab the culprits.

The incident has threatened to take a communal turn with suspicions being raised by right wing outfits that the murder is in retaliation for another killing of a youth belonging to minority community in the same locality recently.