Mangaluru: Members of the Communist Party of India staged a dharna in front of the Clock Tower here on Friday.

Balakrishna Shetty, general secretary of the district unit of CPI(M) said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently warned against so-called cow protectors. Members of a right wing group had killed a BJP member, Praveen Poojary, at Kenjur. But in this case, it had been impossible to make out who the real and the so-called cow protectors were.

The right wing groups would do well to remember that as agriculture was declining in the district, people had no alternative but to sell their old cows and oxen, he said.

K. Shankar, CPI(M) leader, said that the right wing groups were behaving as if there was no law and order machinery in the district. Killing a human being in the name of a cow was abominable.

The Sangh Parivar was treating human beings as inferior to cows. The way things were going, it would not be surprising if the Sangha Parivar outfits started fighting among themselves, he said.

Admar Sripathi Acharya, H. Narasimha, Vittal Poojary, P. Vishwanath Rai, Suresh Kalagara and Sujatha, Nalini, CPI(M) leaders, were present.