Mayhem in Mangalore – Churches Attacked

All Photos from mangalorean.com

For more photos click PHOTOS OF MANGALORE CHURCH MEYHAM

Mangalore Sept 14, 2008: Following the attacks on prayer halls in the coastal districts, the Chief Minister of Karnataka B.S. Yeddyurappa will be arriving in Udupi to review the law and order situation in the coastal districts.

The Chief Minister who was on his visit to  Mysore condemned the attack on prayer halls and said that all those who are involved in attacks of prayer halls will be brought to books. “Nobody is above law, irrespective of cast and creed the culprits will be punished” he said adding that if there was a need, he had even instructed the IG(Western Range) to book the culprits under Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA).

Expressing shock over the incidents, the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh called Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to take stock of the situation and initiate immediate steps to provide protection to religious places in the state.

The places of worship which were attacked in DK included Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration Monastery, Christ Church at Kodikal near Mangalore, Believers Church of India at Puttur, Mahima Prathanalaya and Indian Pentecostal both at Madanthyar and Bethesda Aradanalaya at Sullia. In Chikumagalur, miscreants attacked Yavana Swami church at Magodu village, and Time and Paul Gospel Harvest prayer hall at Koppa. In  Udupi district, New Life prayer hall located behind KSRTC bus stand was attacked apart from two other prayer halls at Shiroor and Kollur.

According to the Mangalore police more than 30 people were injured in the incidents in Mangalore including policemen and eight vehicles were damaged.

The modus operandi of well orchestrated attacks by suspected Bajrang Dal activists at all places was similar in that a groups involving 20-25 activists ransacked into the prayer halls between 10:00 am and 10.30 am and have desecrated the statues of Jesus Christ and damaged the furnitures.

The state convener of Bajrang Dal Mahendra Kumar in a press statement has stated that the attack was targeted at the New Life groups and not on the Catholic churches.

KPCC President Mallikarjun Kharge, while condemning the attack demanded the resignation of State Home minister V S Acharya, who belonged to the district.

Accusing the BJP Govt of backing the Hindu fundamentalists, Kharge said “it is clear that BJP is behind the attacks by supporting these fundamentalists like Bajrang Dal and creating communal unrest in the society by dividing the communities over religion.”

Kharge demanded that the Home Minister should quit for failing to give protection to the minorities in his own district. “I demand the arrest of all Bajrang Dal activists and all culprits be brought to book,” he said.

Home Minister Acharya has completely failed to maintain law and order in the state ever since the BJP has come to power, Kharge charged.

Read more Mangalorean.Com-

Persecution in Orissa

By The editors | SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

S ixty years after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi at the hands of Hindu extremists, the nation that celebrates him as its founding father is faced with a dire threat to one of Gandhi’s most treasured dreams: religious amity among all of India’s many faith traditions. During several days of horrifying violence in the states of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, sparked by the unsolved murder of a Hindu nationalist leader, angry mobs have murdered dozens of Christians and burned thousands more out of their homes.

The national political conventions and natural disasters in the United States have dominated the news cycle in recent weeks and unfortunately have obscured India’s troubles from American eyes. Neither the scope nor the ferocity of the violence seems to come across in American newspapers and broadcast reports.

Over 80 churches have been destroyed, as have orphanages, convents and prayer houses throughout the region. Christians have been accused of “forced conversions” and “paid conversions.” The violence has unmasked a troubling phenomenon in India: a virulent growth of religious intolerance toward non-Hindus.

While India has been thus far spared the fundamentalist nightmare that has bedeviled some of its neighbors, this crisis presents the world’s largest democracy with a great test: can India find a via media between the rigid secularism of Western Europe and the religious nationalism that has taken root elsewhere in recent decades?

The threat is not just to India’s rural Christians now living in terror, but to India’s entire self-identity as a multireligious, multiethnic nation living in harmony. Ever since the agonies of religious and ethnic strife that followed Partition in 1947, India has stubbornly refused to be identified as a Hindu state, or indeed even a religious one, instead holding fast to the notion that Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and others can coexist under a single rule of law. Recent events are suddenly calling the durability of that notion into question.

What can be done to help the beleaguered Christians of Orissa and other regions in rural India? Judging by the lassitude of the police in a number of well-documented incidents in Orissa, it is clear that on a basic level Indian authorities are failing to live up to their duty to protect their citizens. If local authorities are unable or unwilling to quell mob violence and deter further attacks, the national government should recognize its obligation to send in large numbers of troops to protect minorities and restore trust among victims. Were this violence taking place in Mumbai or New Delhi rather than in marginalized and poverty-stricken Orissa, such drastic steps would likely have long since been ordered.

Second, there must be recognition that while the issue appears on the surface to be a religious dispute, there are also complex economic and social forces driving the mob violence. Orissa has long been a neglected backwater in terms of government investment and interest, with the result that the growing disparity between the economic haves and the have-nots is even more painfully obvious there than in India’s other regions. Because Christian missionaries often run schools in which even those at the bottom levels of India’s caste system can learn English and acquire marketable skills, resentment against Christians is also a sign of the open frustration of many of Orissa’s people that they are falling further behind while other groups in Indian society find prosperity. New attention must be paid by the Indian government to neglected states like Orissa. Otherwise any insistence on religious tolerance that is not accompanied by economic reforms will be pointless.

The two most insidious dangers that face any democracy are unbridled nationalism and widespread economic inequality, both of which are present for all to see in those regions of India that have not participated in India’s continuing economic growth. Sincere attempts to address those economic inequalities will surely help check the growth of nationalism, which is more often fueled by economic frustration than by the narcissism of religious or ethnic differences.

Pope Benedict XVI, in an appeal for peace that also condemned the attacks, made reference to India’s long and proud tradition of religious tolerance: “I ask religious leaders and civil authorities to work together to reestablish among the members of the various communities the peaceful coexistence and harmony that have always been a hallmark of Indian society.” If they do not, it will not be just the Christians of Orissa who suffer, but indeed all Indians, because they will witness the death of Mahatma Gandhi’s great dream of Mother India embracing all her children. (The America)

INDIA Christians, Others Demand Ban On Hindu Extremist Groups As Anti-Christian Violence Spreads

NEW DELHI (UCAN) – Christian and other groups in India have demanded a ban on some Hindu radical organizations as anti-Christian violence spread to more states.

Catholic nuns form a human chain on Sept. 7 in Mangalore, southern India, to protest anti-Christian violence in Orissa.

Anti-Christian violence prompted communist groups, the Lok Janashakti Party (people’s power party), the All India Christian Council, Christian Social Forum and others to issue separate calls for a ban on Bajrang Dal (party of the strong and stout) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, world Hindu council).

The BJP is considered the political arm of these and other groups that want to turn India into a Hindu theocratic nation. A ban could abolish parties or prohibit them from functioning.

Hindu extremists reportedly attacked Sunday worshippers at a Protestant church in Karnataka on Sept. 7. Two days later the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people’s party) marked its first 100 days in power in the southern Indian state.

On that same day, fire destroyed a Protestant church in Madhya Pradesh, a central state the BJP has ruled since December 2003. The British had built the church in 1922 in Ratlam, some 700 kilometers south of New Delhi.

David Samuel told UCA News he and other parishioners had decorated the church to celebrate 86 years when fire gutted it. Police blamed a short circuit for the fire, but Samuel said he suspects Hindu radicals.

Attacks on Christians and their institutions were also reported in September from Chhattisgarh in central India and Gujarat and Rajasthan along the western coast, all BJP-ruled states. Currently, the BJP also rules Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal state in northern India. It is also a ruling coalition partner in Bihar and Orissa in the east, and Punjab in the north.

The most recent incidents occurred against the backdrop of violence against Christians in Orissa state following the Aug. 23 killings of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, an 85-year-old Hindu religious leader, and four associates. Maoists have claimed responsibility for this, but Hindu radicals blame Christians nonetheless.

Since Aug. 24, the violence in Orissa has killed at least 27 people, most of them Christians. Mobs of Hindu extremists also destroyed some 4,000 Christian homes and several churches, presbyteries and convents. Tens of thousands of Christians hid in forests for safety amid the violence.

On Sept. 6, the Orissa unit of the VHP defied a prohibition against holding a memorial program for Swami Saraswati, who had campaigned against Christian missioners for decades in Orissa’s Kandhamal district.

Sources and media reports said several Hindu monks at that memorial meeting for the slain Hindu leader took a special vow to eradicate Christians from Kandhamal district.

Swami Satchidananda Maharaj, the Hindu monk who presided over the meeting, announced the decision to form vigilance committees in all Orissa villages to oppose Hindu conversion to Christianity.

Swami Bhagwan Das, another speaker, accused Christians of killing Swami Saraswati and said the act challenged the entire Hindu society.

Another monk, Swami Arupananda Maharaj, also described the murder as an attack on Hinduism and called for Hindus to counter the move to make India a Christian nation.

Christian groups dismiss the allegations as baseless and aimed at inciting sectarian violence that could polarize voters ahead of the country’s next general election, due in early 2009.

Father John Fernandes, professor of Christian Studies at Mangalore University in Karnataka, says the anti-Christian incidents are part of “planned strategies” to garner votes. “In terms of votes Christians are insignificant, but for uniting Hindus, the hate campaign is significant for them,” the priest told UCA News on Sept. 10.

Father Fernandes regretted that “success” in one place motivates the Hindu radicals to test the strategy in other areas. He also expressed anguish over “destructive elements creeping into Hindu organizations,” saying these people promote violence against religious minorities as a model.

Maria David, who works for Indo Global Social Service Society, also says Hindu groups in Karnataka have launched a hate campaign against Christians after the state came under BJP rule.

Meanwhile, Christians held rallies across Karnataka on Sept. 7 to protest anti-Christian violence. In Mangalore, 2,290 kilometers south of New Delhi, Christians, Hindus and Muslims organized a hunger strike and formed a human chain.

END

Bharat Mata is stifled by saffron

Ponni Arasu

I write this piece sitting in the capital of the only south Indian state which is ruled by the BJP. Within a few months of the BJP coming to power, the repercussions are crystal clear. Saffron shines through every nook and corner of this IT hub, which is already struggling to deal with  a range of inequalities. Churches, Christian schools and Muslim and Christian individuals  and communities are being attacked regularly in the state. The pattern is familiar. The Nazi model is sound and can be replicated anywhere and thus Karnataka is now replicating the realities of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Human rights activists, researchers and lawyers working on arrange of issue are beginning to come together to prepare for a long tussle with Hindu fundamentalist forces.   I wish this dramatic narration was an exaggeration. What is it that brings rights activists across the board together when it comes to Hindu fundamentalism in India? Is it just the magnitude of the issue that has hit us violently in the past? That seems to be too inadequate a reason. The essential reason is that the Hindutva ideology believes in building ONE kind of nation. In this nation there will be Hindus and those who agree to live subservient to the Hindus. These Hindus are also not a generic category. To be Indian is to be Hindu. The ideal Hindu is a ‘healthy’, upper caste, rich, heterosexual man. All other Hindus exist to assist in the life of this “complete man”. This man is to then ‘guard’ ‘mother India’.  It is these self-appointed ‘guardians’ of the nation who attacked cinema halls across the country which screened Deepa Mehta’s lesbian-themed film Fire. One such ‘guardian’ is vehemently contesting the challenge to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises the existence and the lives of LGBT persons, in the Delhi high Court. This is part of the long strenuous relationship between Hindu fundamentalists and sexuality rights activists in India. This relationship is not just a contestation over simpler questions of sexuality identities or practices. It is a question of culture and nation. Fire, they screamed, showcased things that are against Indian culture, as is Valentine’s day celebrations or even Eid and Christmas as they might soon declare. Poorer Hindu and Muslim men and women, those not part of the  Archies cards version of ‘love’, but who sneak away to local parks to whisper sweet nothings or just converse casually are assaulted by the ‘guardians’. Art exhibitions are ransacked and all those involved physically hurt for allegedly ‘disrespecting’ the ‘gods’ , who apparently cannot be, at any cost, imagined or portrayed by anyone else but the ‘guardians’, in a manner that they decide.  These ‘guardians’ are not just here to guard what they believe is theirs. They are here to decide how we ALL live; who we love, which gods we pray to and how. If you dare to exist any other way, you are to die. And die not as an individual but as a community. The list of people the VHP, Bajrang Dal or RSS attack in India today is eerily similar to those sent to concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Communists there — human rights activists here. Binayak Sen is a case in point. Jews there — Muslims, Christians, dalits, tribals and god knows how many other communities here. Both lists have one thing, literally, in common — homosexuals. The similarity between these lists is not a coincidence and does not end there. They have in common the focus on propaganda, the belief in violence and acts of social good (education and other welfare) as a tool to breed hatred of the imagined ‘other’.  This imagined ‘other’ in effect is each and every person who believes in the right to make one’s own choices in terms of god, work, love and life. This ‘other’ is one who believes that all human beings deserve equal opportunities and equal rights to live their lives with respect and dignity. This ‘other’ captures the spirit of the Indian constitution and our long history of social struggles for justice and equality.  It is the ‘guardians of this nation’ who seem to be out of place. What gave them the right to fix our ‘culture’? A culture is one that has space for everyone, equally irrespective of their caste, class, region, religion, gender or sexuality. It is this culture that gave us the sensuous sculptures of Khajuraho, the Kama Sutra, the love story of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin and Amir Khusro. It gave us the paintings of M F Hussain and movies like My brother Nikhil. This culture made space for queer columns in popular newspapers! Culture is an entity that is to give space for all those who choose to be part of it to change, transform and build so as to ensure warmth, love and camaraderie.

 

Whatever may be the violent dreams and  aspirations of these  alleged ‘guardians’, lives and struggles will go on with heads held high and hearts that have the courage to love. “Hate is more lasting than dislike”, said Adolf Hitler but then again “love will keep us alive and kicking!” (Expressbuzz)

 

Ponni Arasu  is a queer, feminist  activist and researcher  and currently works with  the Alternative Law Forum,  Bangalore. She can  be contacted at  ponni@altlawforum.org

Attacks on Churches and Christians in India – Violence in Mangalore

Kim

Section 144 has just been clamped on Mangalore city.

Police resorted to lathi charge and throwing tear gas grenades at peaceful protesters where a number of nuns and women were injured and had to be taken to hospital.

What the hell is wrong with our country and its people? (I would not normally use such strong language in print, but it doesn’t even begin to demonstrate how strongly I feel)

Today morning between 9am and 10am, Bajrang Dal activists attacked and destroyed 4 churches in Mangalore City.

Why? Because New Life members distributed pamphlets which said “Do not Worship Hindu Gods”
While I admit that this could be an incendiary statement, does this justify attacking people and churches who do not even agree with the methods used by the New Life preachers?
Does this justify attacking members of a church, who have not had anything to do with conversions or preaching and just listen?

Let’s look at the issues here:
1. The Bajrang Dal resorts to violence because of something that is printed that they do not agree with.
2. When the Bajrang Dal says that conversions are illegal, (and all the other things they do with tis as their cause) aren’t they infact enforcing that “you cannot worship any God other than a Hindu God”
3. The New Life Church is a relative newcomer, known to be more hardline than most other churches which distance themselves from them. Shouldn’t the Bajrang Dal have at least distinguished that?
4. Even if they did not agree with what was printed by the New Life church in India, couldn’t they try having a dialog with them first, before resorting to violence.
Looks like the hooligans behind these attacks are only interested in breaking bones and getting their adrenaline pumping rather than really trying to sort out any kinds of problems or misunderstandings.

The ruffians broke all the religious statues in the Sisters of Poor Clare’s Adoration Monastery. They threw the Holy Eucharist on the ground and desecrated it.

Is this OK, just because it is being done against Catholics/Christians in India who have historically been as non-violent as the Jains and buddhists (other minorities) in India?

Concerned members of the churches gathered in the church grounds during and after evening mass in a peaceful way to seek assurance and guidance from the priests and other religious. Wasn’t this a peaceful gahtering compared to mobs rampaging and torching buses because of some mud smeared on Meenatai’s statue? or The countrywide riots following a desecration of an Ambedkar statue in Kanpur? The second incident was also of smeared mud. Both the desecrations happened on public roads. This does not make it right, but compare this to religious statues being broken on private property, the Holy Eucharist (which Christians believe is the body of Christ once it is blessed) thrown on the ground. Do not Christians have a right to congregate to discuss their fears following such incidents.

Remember the Christians were gathering in peace outside their place of worship (since the insides of the church were full) not going out and torching buses or hurting other innocent people.

To add fuel to the fire, the police arrived. No issues with their arriving where crowds had gathered, but they started lathi charging the gathered people and seriously injured nuns and women among the crowd and threw tear bombs inside the church where Sunday evening mass was being held. A religious ceremony, a peaceful ceremony, held everyday inside these churches.

Was this responsible on the part of the police to use force and violence against unarmed, peaceful members of the public?

People present at the scene said that the police themselves were pelting stones at the crowd and caning them, hurting both people and damaging property in the vicinity.

The news channels started to broadcast about this and then completely hushed up. I turned on my India feed of NDTV which promised for 15 minutes to show an update and news about Mangalore city and suddenly it stopped showing those banners without showing any news about what had happened. Looks like someone high in the political chain, got to them and yanked the news off the air.

Now take 2-3 other incidents into perspective.
On 29th August over 40,000 Christian Educational Institutions across India stayed closed to register a peaceful protest against the continuing violence against Christians in Orissa which has now spread to 13 out of 30 districts.

On the same day, the government of Karnataka announced its decision to take action against Christian schools in the state for closing without prior permission.

This same government has yet to take action against the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat and RSS workers, who had launched violent protests when the JD (S) failed to hand over the state reins to the BJP last year.

Is it any surprise that both Karnataka and Orissa currently have the BJP in power?

The VHP held violent protests in Madhya Pradesh and other places asking why the Christians had killed Saraswati? (by shutting educational institutions for a day) What about all the occasions when the BJP/VHP/Bajrang Dal/Shiv Sena and other Hindu organisations force schools, colleges and business to shut shutter for their own bundhs which destroy all normalcy in the cities?

Why are these double standards in play? Why are Christians being given the short end of the stick? Religious Christian institutions have a large role to play in education, medicine, caring for the orphans, abandoned, old and dying in India. Christians have been one of the most tolerant minorities in India (imagine what would have happened by now if by chance the Bajrang Dal hooligans had desecrated a mosque this morning) who have contributed immensely to the growth of the country. Why this treatment? Do they deserve it?

Do they deserve a government that is apathetic to their religious sensibilities being trampled upon?

Christians have always believed in being peace loving, patient and tolerant. Will the Christian youth of today continue to be as tolerant when they see the atrocities being committed against their brethren in Orissa and the North East?

Why are these atrocities against Christians being downplayed in the media? (Try googling for the attack against Christians in India and see how many Indian media links pop up) Why aren’t they being given coverage? Is it because the powers-that-be know that they aren’t doing a thing to control, controllable situations and the miscreants in their party? Is it because the powers-that-be know that the Christians haven’t ever retaliated with violence? How long will the Christians community be able to react with tolerance and peace? (2 values that a lot of Indians in the news seem to have completely forgotten about)

Final note of irony: Union minister of labour and employment Oscar Fernandes (a Christian) was in Mangalore today to inaugurate the opening of a (Hindu) temple.

And so we debate endlessly in the media about terrorism coming in from across the border while we burn our own own citizens in their homes and places of worship.
(desicritics.org)

Communal rage: New face of violence

NEW DELHI: The communal violence and retaliation by security forces claiming two more lives in Kandhmal in Orissa on Saturday, and Bajrang Dal-led attacks on Christians in Davanagere and Chikmagalur in Karnataka, no longer appear to be isolated incidents. Conversion related violence is on the rise and tantamount to opening up of yet another front apart from the ones that jolt us out of our revery now and then: Islamist terrorism and Maoist extremism. The attacks on Christians are being sought to be justified on the ground that people are being forcibly converted from Hinduism or tribalism to Christianity. But on closer scrutiny, it appears the issue isn’t merely of conversion. In Kandhmal, for instance, it’s the increasing prosperity of the Dalit Panas after they converted to Christianity that seems to have become a trigger for violence against them. In times of blind hatred, there is no independent verification of the charge levelled by the majority Kandha tribals against the Dalit Panas: that they claim Hinduism as their religion in certificates for job benefits as SCs but practice Christianity for a jump in their social profile. Orissa has the highest percentage of Hindu population of all the states, almost 95%. While Hindu numbers have decreased marginally over the last three decades, there has been a corresponding increase in Christian population. This possibly points at the cause — but not the justification — for the attacks against Orissa’s Christians. In West Bengal’s Nadia district, the last reported instance of violence against Christians was on Christmas 2002, when a priest and 14 others were injured after a group of about 50 armed men attacked the church during the special midnight mass. They threatened about 1,000 worshippers with dire consequence if they didn’t immediately disperse. Says George Pattery, head of Jesuits of Kolkata, “Sitting in West Bengal, we can’t imagine the struggle that missionaries are going through in Orissa. They are being targeted because they have been able to bring a change in the lives of the poorest of the poor. However, as always we will continue with our work.” In Karnataka, where a couple of days before the Davanagere prayer hall was torched, the local administration locked up two churches in the town. Two students of Bible college too were attacked. Says former Bangalore city police chief and BJP MP H T Sangliana, who voted with the UPA on the July 22 trust vote, “The impression among people is that the attacks on Christians have increased since the BJP government came to power in the state. The freedom of religion has been violated.” He refutes the charge of conversion against the missionaries and says, “No one has produced any evidence.” In Chhattisgarh, a relatively unknown group of fundamentalists, Dharma Sena, has been periodically attacking Christian congregations and prayer meetings. On Christmas eve in 2007, Pastor James and 10 other Christians were beaten up by “Dharma Sena” lumpens. Then, only last week, four Catholic nuns were forced to get off a train at Durg railway station along with four infants by Dharma Sena activists who claimed the children were Hindu and were being taken for religious conversion. It later came to light that the babies were willingly handed over to the nuns of Missionaries of Charity by unwed mothers. Religious conversion is a social issue needing address by community leaders through dialogue. Its degeneration into violence is a reflection on the shrinking liberal space where all differences are sought to be sorted out through physical intimidation and, worse, liquidation. (TOI)

Conversion fire engulfs Karnataka, seven churches vandalized

MANGALORE/UDUPI/CHIKMAGALUR: After Kandhmal, it is the turn of Christians in Karnataka to face the ire of right-wing Hindu mobs.

Suspected Bajrang Dal activists vandalized seven churches and a house in Mangalore, Udupi and Chikmagalur districts on Sunday, protesting alleged conversions of Hindus to Christianity.

Some preachers and parishioners were assaulted and church property damaged in the attacks. The police in the three districts are yet to arrest anyone.

In Dakshina Kannada district, the activists targeted the Adoration Monastery just off the Milagres Church on Falnir Road. The 10-member group barged into the prayer hall and damaged the tabernacle, where the holy Eucharist is kept. They damaged windowpanes, furniture as well the crucifix. Police said the same group attempted to vandalise another prayer hall in Kankanady, but were driven back.

Later, Christians gathered in large numbers in front of the Milagres Hall to protest against the series of attacks. The day-long stand off between the protesters and the police resulted in violence. Protesters hurled stones at the police who lathicharged them in return. Several vehicles were damaged, including the jeep of the city DSP D Dharmaiah.

Police burst teargas shells to disperse the angry youth. Some of the protesters took shelter in the Milagres Church Hall premises to escape the mob fury. Prohibitory orders have been imposed in the area up to 8 am on Wednesday.

SP N Sathish Kumar said the police stood guard at some churches that they suspected would be targets of attacks. However, the miscreants had changed their plans in the last moment and attacked churches that did not have police security.

In Udupi district, three places of worship belonging to the New Life group in the district were attacked while the Sunday prayers were in progress. No arrests have been made so far.

A prayer hall near the KSRTC bus station was attacked around 10.20 am during a prayer. Over 15 activists entered the hall and attacked the people and ransacked the entire place. A music system and projector were damaged. According to sources, the miscreants came in vehicles.

In Shiroor, near Baindur, the prayer hall of the same group was attacked. A vehicle was burnt and some members of the congregation, including the pastor, were attacked. A similar incident was reported from Mudur near Kollur where some materials were damaged. However, the police prevented another such attack in prayer halls of the New Life group in Kaup and Karkala. Udupi SP Pravin Pawar said he suspected Bajrang Dal activists were behind the attack.

He told TOI that the police registered cases and investigations had started. In Chikmagalur district, the activists attacked three churches and the house of a neo convert. In one incident, 15 activists came in a vehicle and barged into Harvest India church at Makkikoppa near Jayapura in Koppa taluk in the morning and assaulted a parishioner and the protestant pastor. They broke the window panes and the plastic chairs.

Concerned over the prospects of an anti-Christian campaign spreading to Karnataka soon after attacks on minorities in Orissa, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh drew the attention of chief minister B S Yedyurappa to reports of such incidents earlier in the day.

He also talked to governor Rameshwar Thakur. The stage for the PM’s telephonic talks had been set by a Congress demand for central interventions to end attacks on churches and Christian institutions allegedly by Sangh Parivar activists. In a statement, party leader Veerappa Moily said that several outfits of the Sangh Parivar had attacked churches and Christian buildings in a number of districts in southern Karnataka.

He said that such incidents had been going on for the past few weeks. Claiming that the culprits were allowed to go free, Moily claimed that the BJP government in the state had looked the other way instead of arresting the hoodlums. “Congress demands that the state government initiate immediate action; otherwise we may have no option but to approach the government of India for appropriate intervention,” he said in a statement. (TOI)