India water protests turn violent

India: Riot police have been deployed to India's technology hub of Bengaluru to curb tensions as protesters demonstrates over a water dispute that turned violent, with cars and buses set on fire and people pelted with stones.

Television footage showed flames coming out from burnt vehicles as angry protesters gathered nearby.

Police said the local metro network had been temporarily suspended.

The violence started after India's Supreme Court ordered Karnataka state to release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second every day from the Cauvery river to neighbouring state Tamil Nadu.

The river has been the cause of more than a century tension between the states, and in 1991 the anger turned violent after an interim court order telling Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu sparked widespread riots against Tamils in Bengaluru, which left more than 18 people dead.

"Rapid Action Force Teams have been deployed all over the city," Bengaluru city police said on Twitter on Monday.

"We urge to all Bengalurians...Stay calm and not to be panic."

According Reuters, a witness saw a group of 20 to 30 protesters, some armed with sticks and stones, stopping and searching cars.

 

The angry protesters pulled several Tamil Nadu-registered trucks and motorcycles to the side of the road and pelted them with stones.
One truck driver was beaten with a stick as protesters only allowed Karnataka-registered vehicles through the makeshift roadblock.

More than 15,000 police officers had been deployed to the area to maintain peace including riot police and border security forces police said.