After combing forests for years, half of Karnataka's anti-naxal force to fight communal trouble in urban jungles

After combing the forests for years to find armed Maoists, as many as half of the 670-member Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) of the Karnataka Police will now be deployed in urban areas in the state to tackle communal groups that foment violence between communities.

- GNS News Agency, May 21

The new anti-communal task force of the state police that has been proposed in the wake of a series of communal murders in the religiously polarised coastal belt of Karnataka will comprise half of the ANF, which has become redundant following the surrender of the last of the state’s armed Naxals in January, police sources said.

"I have asked the director general of police to send a proposal (for creation of the anti-communal force). We will examine it and approve," Home Minister G Parameshwara said this week. Parameshwara proposed the creation of the anti-communal task force to prevent communal disturbances in the wake of the murder of right-wing gangster Suhas Shetty, 32, in Mangaluru on May 1. Shetty, who has eight crimes, including murders, against his name, was the main accused in the July 2022 murder of Mohammed Fazil, 23, in Surathkal near Mangaluru. Fazil's murder was seen as a retaliation for the murder of BJP youth leader Praveen Nettaru by members of the now-banned Popular Front of India. The new anti-communal task force is expected to be tasked with tracking communal gangsters and groups. The force will operate across the state and will not be restricted to coastal Karnataka, where the communal divide is seen as a major social problem that is beyond the control of the police, sources said. In the past, communal murder cases in Karnataka, especially those of right-wing leaders, have been referred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), allegedly following pressure from the BJP and allies.