Riot-hit areas of Bengaluru's Pulakeshinagar resemble war zone

The rampaging crowd set on fire police vehicles and ransacked the DJ Halli police station on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday and damaged property. Scores of gutted two-wheelers and four-wheelers lined up the roads in the area, bearing testimony to the violence unleashed by the mob.

Charred vehicles, shards of glass from broken windows, stones and bricks lay strewn on deserted roads in Pulakeshinagar here as the area resembled a war zone on Wednesday after an unruly mob went on a rampage. The house of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy also bore the brunt of the mob fury over a 'communally sensitive' social media post allegedly put up by one of his relatives.

Three people were killed in police firing and scores of others, including at least 50 police personnel, wounded, in the violence that erupted in the city on Tuesday night and continued till the wee hours of Wednesday. The rampaging crowd set on fire police vehicles and ransacked the DJ Halli police station on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday and damaged property.

Scores of gutted two-wheelers and four-wheelers lined up the roads in the area, bearing testimony to the violence unleashed by the mob. The crowd has torched the house which is now in ruins with doors, windows, furniture and other goods virtually reduced to ashes while cracks could be seen in the walls.

"No material inside the house is intact. No one can imagine that barely 24 hours before, this was one of the finest buildings in the area," commented a man who lives in the locality as people gathered in front of the house this morning. Fortunately, the MLA and his family were not at home when the mob targeted his house.

"We were not at home when all this happened," Jayanthi, the MLA's sister, said weeping inconsolably. "The only solace is that my brother and his family are safe," she said.

According to Revenue Minister R Ashoka, the rioters looted cash, jewels, clothes and costly electronic gadgets. Police have arrested about 110 people on charges of rioting.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)