Bengaluru: Violence erupted against police following a WhatsApp comment insulting Muslims went viral. Police reported at least 88 arrests after a mob attacked police and vandalised public property in Hubli (480 km north of Bengaluru) on Saturday night.

Despite the arrest of the one who posted the message, twelve police officials were injured in the mob attack as people gathered around the police station, pelted stones at police and damage police vehicles.

In the recent weeks have seen various conflicts between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities in several parts of India. Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, has roused extremist religious groups to initiate causes that they claim defend the Hindu faith, however, BJP denies any increase in communal intolerance.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minority Affairs Minister, said that tension among religious communities was not worsening, in an interview published on Sunday.

Politicians on the opposition side hold Modi’s party responsible for inciting Hindu-Muslim tension in states where it rules.