Cauvery row: Life goes on under curfew control

BENGALURU: Even before the first azaan of the day , Fazal

Mahmood

was awake for Bakrid. But he couldn't stir out as he had seen on TV the previous night that his locality was under curfew.
One person had died of bullet injuries suffered in firing by security personnel the previous night -a few hundred metres from his house in

Hegganahalli

. As he knew it, a curfew didn't allow people to step out, but his wife was gently reminding him of the groceries to be bought. And the pending masjid visit was ruling his mind.

“It took courage to step out. I took a few steps rather gingerly and reached the main road only to be encountered by two cops who asked me to return,“ the plywood merchant in his late 40s said.

Later, he was allowed to walk past the site of Monday's firing. Scores of police personnel still stood guard there. He secured the police nod to go to the masjid with instructions that he must return home after the prayers. He couldn't buy groceries, though.

The curfew in large swathes from

Tu makuru Road

to Mysuru Road -hundreds of layouts coming under 16 police limits -didn't mean a complete shutdown on Tuesday. People could move around freely, but not for long.

Raghavendra R, a bachelor from

Peenya

, was hungry. Restaurants that took care of his hunger were shut. With no kitchen stock, the youth had to make peace with an empty stomach.

Elsewhere, Tiruvel, who lives in a small hamlet off Mysuru Road, opened doors in the morning to see three cops camping in front of his house. The cops were part of a larger platoon deployed in the area, which saw a minor clash between two communities on Monday . As he emerged from his house, the men in khaki asked him for water. “Later, they shared a meal with us. I didn't step out because the shopping avenues were shut.But I'm glad the worst is over,“ he said.

Back in Hegganahalli, the gutted police vehicle -its torching led to police firing that claimed a youth's life -remained a mute spectator to the tension in the area. “I hate this burning smell, but someone has to clear this,“ said labourer Chikkanna. He wondered if he would be paid for this job.

By afternoon, vehicular movement picked up. After hunting through narrow bylanes of many areas in search of arsonists, police, too, took their foot off the pedal. The central forces have been managing with hardly four hours of sleep and short on food and water.

Just around then, smiles broke out on security personnel's faces as some kind residents plied them with home food and water. In one case, a Muslim man generously shared sweets prepared for Eid with the personnel.