Bangalore, Sept. 5: The Karnataka government today stopped a BJP motorcycle rally to the communally sensitive Mangalore to demand a ban on radical groups from the minority community which they accused of attacks on Sangh parivar workers.

The BJP workers led by former home minister R. Ashoka and state Yuva Morcha president Pratap Simha had assembled at Freedom Park in Bangalore, causing a traffic snarl. Riot police from the Rapid Action Force and the city police stopped the BJP workers from setting off in 300 motorbikes to Mangalore, the coastal city 320km away.

The BJP workers tried to break through the cordon and scuffled with the police. Party leaders, including Ashoka, Simha and Shobha Karandlaje, were among those taken away in police buses and released later.

The Karnataka BJP alleged that Yuva Morcha state secretary Arvind Reddy had suffered a jaw fracture in the fight with the police. He has been hospitalised and may require a surgery, the party said.

The BJP had announced the "Mangalore Chalo" bike rally to demand a ban on the Muslim radical groups Social Democratic Party of India and Popular Front of India, accusing them of perpetrating violence in the coastal district and killing 24 BJP workers in the past four years.

Although the police denied permission, the BJP decided to proceed with the rally. Mangalore police had informed the home ministry that such an event would trigger strife in the sensitive district, plagued by communal tension.

Prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 have been imposed in Mangalore from Sunday midnight to Friday midnight. The bike processions - similar cavalcades were stopped in other parts of Karnataka too - were supposed to culminate in Mangalore on Thursday for a rally.

Chief minister and Congress leader P.C. Siddaramaiah cited "traffic management" for stopping the bikers. "We had clearly told them not to use motorbikes as they would have caused severe traffic issues along the route," he said. "In fact, they should do a 'Delhi Chalo' as there are several issues to be addressed by the Centre," Siddaramaiah said, taking a dig at the NDA government.

Karnataka home minister Ramalinga Reddy said BJP workers had assembled more than 300 motorbikes to Bangalore alone. "There was no way we were going to allow them to create a traffic chaos," he said.

BJP leaders alleged an attack on their "democratic rights". "This is not Pakistan or Iran, this is a democracy," Ashoka said.

"We were only trying to exercise our democratic right to protest as 24 of our workers have been killed in Mangalore (over the past four years). Instead of punishing the culprits, the government used state power to stop us," he told reporters said.

Environment minister Ramanath Rai told reporters in Mangalore that the BJP was forgetting that minority community youths had been killed too."It's not just BJP workers, many youths from the minority community have also been killed," Rai said, announcing a "harmony rally" in the south Karnataka district.

Simha, the Karnataka BJP youth wing chief, said the party would not abandon its plan of holding a rally in Mangalore on Thursday. "Why is this government scared of a motorbike rally? We have asked party workers to assemble in Mangalore as planned as we have no wish of giving up this agitation," he said.

Mangalore police said they had no plans of relaxing the prohibitory orders.

Senior BJP leaders accused the Congress government of "creating an Emergency-like situation by denying us the right to demonstrate in support of our demand to ban the SDPI and the PFI".

Minister for food and civil supplies U.T. Khader advised the BJP to seek the Centre's intervention in banning the two outfits. "Their party is in power in Delhi. So let them ask the Centre to ban these groups," said Khader, who hails from Mangalore.