On Friday evening, some people gathered at the Indiranagar outlet of the popular Karachi Bakery in Bengaluru to demand that it pull down its signboard, a person at the scene said.
Employees at the branch refused to speak to the media. However, Scroll.in has accessed pictures that show that the word “Karachi” in the bakery’s signboard had been covered. An Indian flag was also displayed at the cafe.
The Bengaluru (East) Police Control Room confirmed to Scroll.in that it had received a distress call on Friday evening in connection with a ruckus at Karachi Bakery in Indiranagar, but refused to give any further details.
Other Bengaluru outlets of the Hyderabad-based company have been receiving threatening calls since February 17 from groups demanding that the firm should change its name or shut down the business, employees say.
Employees at the company’s Mahadevapura outlet said that they had complained to the police about the calls. “We are also consulting our lawyer on what is to be done,” Anil Kumar, one of the managers, told Scroll.in.
Though the protestors were ostensibly objecting to the fact that the company bears the name of a city in Pakistan, which they have accused of supporting terrorism against India, The Times of India reported that Karachi Bakery was started by a man from Sindh named Khanchand Ramnani, who settled down in Hyderabad after Partition.
The fracas in Bengaluru comes a week after a suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district killed 40 Indian security personnel. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack.
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