Offensive Facebook post leads to riots in Bengaluru, three dead

Three people were killed in riots triggered by an offensive Facebook post on Tuesday night in Bengaluru. Around 700 youths attacked a police station, torched vehicles, assaulted cops, and tried to set the residence of a local Congress member of legislature (MLA) on fire, eyewitnesses said.

The person suspected of putting up the post is the nephew of the MLA, Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy.

“There is a youth who is related to a local politician,’’ Maulana Mohammed Maqsood Imran Rasheedi, a top Muslim religious leader in Bengaluru, told agencies. He said the youth had posted a derogatory message on social media preceded by ‘’I am not secular’’, that angered people. “We have appealed to people to maintain peace and not resort to any kind of violence,” he added.