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Special Action Force (SAF) personnel in Mangaluru on Friday flagged the speech of a regional RSS leader posted on social media, having the potential to create communal tension, and forwarded it to the Dakshina Kannada district police for registering a case. “Action is initiated on social media posts having potential to incite communal passions,” said Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy, who presently holds additional charge as head of SAF, operating in Mangaluru city, and Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. In another incident, a group of SAF personnel joined the Mangaluru City police on Friday to trace persons allegedly involved in the assault of two Muslim youth. Reportedly, four persons were involved in the assault following a drunken brawl at a bar in Surathkal on Thursday night. While getting familiarised with regional dialect, culture, and crime scene, the personnel of SAF, for the last five months, have been actively involved in curbing hate content in the social media. It was on May 28 this year that the State government created SAF by drawing personnel from the Anti-Naxal Force. About 80 personnel each have been allotted to the three units of SAF, which have been tasked with gathering intelligence on probable communal and provocative incidents and hate speeches, and preventing them. An officer of the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) to head the SAF is yet to be posted. K.U. Belliyappa, who has worked for a long time in Mangaluru city and other parts of Dakshina Kannada, is holding the charge of Deputy Superintendent of Police of SAF. As many as 80 SAF personnel will shortly undergo a 20-day Tulu speaking training, which will be conducted by Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy. Mr. Reddy said the SAF personnel have already started collecting information about personnel allegedly involved in communal crime incidents and sharing inputs with local police stations. A good number of hate speech content on social media was detected by the personnel and cases were registered. Learning Tulu will help personnel have better bonding with locals, he said. A separate budgetary allocation has been made by the government to meet expenses related to the SAF. Office of the SAF is now on the second floor of ‘Praja Soudha’, the District Office building, in Mangaluru. A building will be taken on rent shortly in Bantwal to have another office of SAF. Four buses, two vans and 10 jeeps have been allocated to the SAF personnel. Mr. Reddy said an examination was held a few days ago to check personnel’s understanding of local problems, culture and crime.
