Tipu Sultan Jayanti today; Bengaluru gets tight security cover

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BENGALURU: While Bengaluru gears up to celebrate 'Tipu Jayanti', the city on Friday is under a thick security blanket. 

'Tipu Jayanti' will be celebrated across the state to mark the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan, the 18th-century ruler of the Mysore Kingdom.

Tipu Jayanti is being observed since 2015 following a government decision, which had triggered a major row and caused violence in Kodagu district that year.

Yesterday, the Bengaluru police had ordered restrictions on all kinds of public procession in Karnataka to avoid any untoward incident on the occasion of Tipu Jayanti.

"We are not giving permission to any procession, whether it is in favour of Tipu Jayanti or against it. The government itself is celebrating the event in various parts of the city for which we have made elaborate arrangement," Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said while addressing the media.

As many as 13,000 policemen, along with personnel of the Garud Commando Force, 30 platoons of the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) and 20 platoons of the City Armed Reserve (CAR), will be deployed in sensitive and hypersensitive areas to prevent any untoward incident.

He further said that there will be celebrations only at the places identified by the government, adding that the police would deal firmly with those who plan to create trouble.

"We have not made any preventive arrests so far but if the situation rises, section 144 (prohibitory order) may be imposed," Kumar added.

On Tuesday, the Karnataka High Court refused to put a stay on Tipu Sultan Jayanti celebrations, slated to be celebrated across the state on November 10.

Earlier, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker from the state Prahlad Joshi had alleged that Tipu Sultan was "anti-Hindu, anti-Kannada and exploited India".

Known as the "Tiger of Mysore", Tipu Sultan ruled the Mysore kingdom from 1782-1799 succeeding his father Hyder Ali.

Though Tipu Sultan was born in 1750 at Devanahalli on the outskirts of Bengaluru, his kingdom's capital was at Srirangapatna near Mysore.