Members of the Muslim community staged protests and blocked roads at Sirwar in Karnataka’s Raichur over a garland of footwear on a portrait of Tipu Sultan on Wednesday morning.
According to sources, a few unknown miscreants garlanded a portrait of the Islamic ruler with slippers on Tuesday night.
The protesters blocked the roads and burned tyres seeking the arrest of the miscreants. Police officials and community leaders reached the protest sites and urged the protesters to call off their stir, assuring them of prompt action.
Protests involving the 18th-century ruler is not new for Karnataka. The Islamic ruler has been at the centre of several Congress vs BJP squabbles in the state.
In December last year, A Congress MLA from Karnataka sparked a row after proposing to rename the Mandakalli Airport in Mysuru after Tipu Sultan. “I propose the naming of Mysuru Airport to Tipu Sultan Airport,” Prasad Abbayya, the Hubballi-Dharwad (East) MLA said during a discussion on changing airport names.
Abbayya’s statement triggered protest from the Opposition BJP, stirring the old row over the ‘Tiger of Mysuru’. The row over Tipu Sultan goes back to 2016, when the then Congress government led by Siddaramaiah began celebrating his birthday on November 10.
