Bangalore: A day after fresh violence rocked the Tech City, it was life as usual at the numerous software firms and call centres in the city on Monday. The IT industry operated normally, unaffected by the communal tension and heavy security deployment in various parts of the city.
"We are working. There is no change in our schedule," said a staffer at Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's second-largest software exporter. The schools, however, remained closed and markets saw thin crowds in several areas.
The violence and communal turmoil came days after leading IT powers here reported spectacular third-quarter results. But it also showed that the Garden City, also known as Pensioners' Paradise and India's Silicon Valley, still harbours a volatile core.
Bangalore is home to nearly 1,500 technology companies, accounts for 40 per cent of India's IT revenues. The $22 billion IT sector contributes 3.5 per cent of India's gross domestic product. Firms in this southern city employ about 35 per cent of India's pool of one million IT professionals. Accounting for the highest IT-related exports, the city's net domestic product is valued at $51.9 billion.
Over the past three days, irate mobs have broken into violence, resorting to mindless arson and indulging in group clashes and street battles with the police, which has a 12-year-old boy dead and 22 people injuried.
The injured, including eight police constables, were admitted to the Bowring Hospital. The condition of Thimmaiah, a police constable who was stabbed, was said to be critical.
On Monday, even though the district administration relaxed the overnight curfew, the police were out on the street in full force looking over the trouble spots and schools were closes. Karnataka Home Minister MP Prakash said on Monday that the government is taking all necessary steps to bring back normalcy in the state.
The violence began during a protest rally on Friday by thousands of Muslims against last month''s execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Police said the violence was sparked off when a banner relating to a Hindu religious gathering was allegedly removed by a group of people who were on their way to attend a rally to condemn the Saddam execution. It sparked off a chain of violence over the weekend between two communities, police and eyewitnesses said.
If it was Muslims, who clashed with police, ransacked shops owned by Hindus and burnt 15 cars; the Hindu mobs took over from them on Sunday when people participating in a religious meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh attacked shops owned by Muslims and stoned vehicles. They also set fire to as many as three buses in Bamboo Bazaar area. Three auto-rickshaws were damaged near the Ulsoor Lake.
Police had to open fire on the rampaging crowd while the attackers fought back, throwing stones at policemen and indulging in street battles. More than 300 people were arrested or detained on charges of rioting on Sunday, police said.
Following the violence in the Shivaji Nagar area, police imposed night curfew from 2200 hours on Sunday to 0700 hours on Monday in the troubled areas of the city.
Around 400 police personnel were deployed in Shivaji Nagar and Bharati Nagar, with officials said the situation was tense but under control. Stray incidents of violence were also reported from areas like Bangalore Cantonment and Old Madras Road.
The situation in other city localities like Kamaraj Road, Armstrong road, Sappers road, Commercial street, Shivchetty garden, Bamboo Bazar, Coles Park, Cock Burn street, Ulsoor lake, Assay Road, Gangadhara Chetty road, Old Madras Road and Indira Nagar also continued to be tense.
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