BANGALORE, India — Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for calm on Tuesday in the Indian tech hub of Bangalore which has been placed under curfew after deadly violence erupted over a long-running dispute with a neighboring state over access to water.
Around 15,000 police officers were deployed on the largely deserted streets of the southern city to enforce a curfew, after rampaging, stone-pelting mobs set buses and cars ablaze on Monday.
One protester was killed overnight after police fired on a mob which was trying to torch a police car, T.R. Suresh, deputy police commissioner for the city’s north, said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the violence “distressful” and urged restraint in the city, which is home to Indian IT companies and offices of international tech giants such as Microsoft and Dell.
“This dispute can only be solved within the legal ambit. Breaking the law is not a viable alternative,” Modi said in a series of Tweets.
“The violence and arson seen in the last two days is only causing loss to the poor, and to our nation’s property.”
Protests erupted over a Supreme Court order for Karnataka state, of which Bangalore is the capital, to release water from a river to ease a shortage in Tamil Nadu until later this month.
India suffers severe water shortages that cause frequent tensions between states and the row over the Cauvery River stretches back decades.
A curfew was imposed in 15 areas of the city for the next three days “to maintain peace and prevent untoward incidents” during the Muslim holiday of Eid, Bangalore police commissioner N.S Megharikh said.
Some 200 protesters have been arrested on rioting on other charges in a bid to quell the violence, which has forced shops, offices and schools to close.
While Bangalore was calm on Tuesday, angry protests were staged along the 150-km highway from the capital to the city of Mysore.
“A grave injustice is being done to us as the state is forced to release more water for growing crops in Tamil Nadu when we don’t have sufficient water for even drinking because of deficit rains,” Pravish Shetty, who heads a group campaigning for the rights of Karnataka people, told local TV.
Cable operators in Karnataka have also blocked scores of Tamil Nadu television channels in a bid to defuse tensions, while bus services between the two states have also been suspended.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah warned on Tuesday of tough punishments for anyone involved in fresh violence.
Vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration plates were attacked on Monday and protesters blocked roads by burning tires and torching effigies of politicians.
“A group of unidentified miscreants barged into our bus yard and set 30 of our coaches on fire with kerosene or petrol,” Rajesh Natarajan, managing director of KPN Tours & Travels, a company based in Tamil Nadu, told local television.
Earlier this year the government was forced to deploy troops to secure a canal supplying water to New Delhi after it was sabotaged by protesters in neighboring Haryana state, causing days of shortages in the capital.
