State BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa said here on Sunday that though there is a need to set up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) unit in Mangaluru, the State government has not made a demand for it.
Addressing presspersons, he said that if the BJP came to power in the Assembly elections, the unit would be opened in the coastal city and provided infrastructure.
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that there are reports that Islamic Sate of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) operatives have links in the coastal belt in the State and neighbouring Kerala. There are reports that it has agents in Bhatkal and Mangaluru. The security of the coastal belt is now under threat.
He said that the drug mafia was rampant in the coastal belt. It was the route cause for what he said deteriorating law and order in the belt. The State government has failed to control the mafia, he said.
The BJP leader said that Kerala-like political murders were now taking place in Dakshina Kannada.