Yediyurappa received threat calls from Saudi Arabia, Dubai: Basavaraj Bommai 

Team Udayavani, Feb 20, 2020, 10:08 AM IST

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and he himself were among several politicians who received threat calls from Saudi Arabia and Dubai in the aftermath of two deaths in police firing during violent protests against the CAA and NRC in Mangaluru in December 2019, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Wednesday.

“After the incident (Mangaluru firing), many of our MPs and MLAs received calls from Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

I received the maximum phone calls but I did not find them important. Some threat calls were meant for Chief Minister,” Bommai said during a debate on the law and order situation in the state initiated by leader of opposition Siddaramaiah.

The Home minister claimed that there was a larger conspiracy, which everyone needs to understand.

“I won’t call it a local phenomenon. It has got an international ramification and not limited to just one state.

It is all over right from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala and Karnataka,” the Home minister said.

Recalling the manner in which murders had taken place in the last five to six years, including of some right wing functionaries, Bommai pointed out that even Muslim MLAs in the Congress faced similar threat.

“Tanveer Saith was attacked (with a knife) and bomb was thrown at N A Harris…

I know what U T Khader’s brother had requested me and I had told him that Khader should be very careful,” Bommai said.

The Home minister said anti-national forces were using protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens as an opportunity to create disturbance and violence in the country.

About the Mangaluru violence, he said those killed were not innocent as has been projected by the opposition because there were criminal cases registered against them.

Bommai suspected that there was a Kerala angle to the violence “as over 1,900 phone numbers from Kasaragod in that State were traced in Mangaluru on the day of violence and notices served on 375 people asking them why they were in Mangaluru on December 19.”

He appealed to the opposition members not to speak in a manner that such elements get support.

“If we speak in a manner to get political mileage then everybody has to pay the price tomorrow,” he said.