Mangaluru : The Mangaluru City Crime Branch Police on Friday announced the arrest of four youngsters in connection with the three stabbing incidents reported in sensitive Ullal police station limits on Monday and Tuesday.

Commissioner of Police M. Chandra Sekhar told reporters here that R. Rahul alias Back Rahul (20), a plumber by profession; Pavan Raj (20), a painter; Edwin Rahul D’ Souza alias Puchche Rahul (18), a PU student; and Karthik (19), a diploma student, were nabbed at B.C. Road here. All the four and one Shivaraj, arrested on April 27, have been booked for attempt to murder, he said.

Shivaraj and the four had allegedly attacked Ibrahim Nasfan, who was working in Mangaluru fishing harbour in the early hours of April 25. Again, the four accused, excluding Shivaraj, reportedly attacked three youth in the early hours of Tuesday at Thokkottu and another youth on Tuesday afternoon at Kallapu, all in Ullal police limits. It was suspected that the attacks were acts of retaliation to the murder of fisherman Raju Kotian in Ullal on April 12.

Mr. Sekhar said all the accused were directly involved in the crime and the police are investigating to know if there were any other persons behind the commission of the crime.

Since Tuesday, police personnel were deployed in large numbers in and around Ullal, with more than 600 men from KSRP, KSISF and civil police to ensure normalcy.

Pointed out at the age profile of the accused, who are in their early 20’s, Mr. Sekhar said the police would identify those youngsters who are into acts of mischief and arrange their counselling through community leaders. Trained counsellors from NGOs would be drafted for the purpose, he said.

Since two of the accused, Pavan Raj and Karthik, were allegedly involved in criminal activities earlier and were out on bail, police would also look at corrective justice system to bring them on the right path.

“We will involve community members as societal control is important in such cases,” Mr. Sekhar said.

Deputy Commissioners of Police M. Shantharaju (Law and Order) and Sanjeev M. Patil (Crime and Traffic) were present.