By IANS,
Bangalore : Around 100 people were arrested Monday in the coastal Karnataka city of Mangalore as Christians protesting Sunday’s attack on churches clashed with right wing Hindu groups and police.
“The situation is peaceful since afternoon. Shops (which were shut in the morning in the busy commercial centre, about 350 kms from Bangalore) are open, though public transport is affected,” Inspector General of Police A. M. Prasad told IANS on the telephone from Mangalore.
“We have arrested around 100 people,” he said. “We are still compiling the data,” Prasad said when asked how many have been held for attacking the police and how many for the attack on churches and prayer halls.
He said on Monday, only at one place, police baton charged the crowds and lobbed tear gas shells at two places. “All these places are on the outskirts of the city.”
“More than 20 policemen suffered minor injuries in the stone throwing,” he said.
Unlike Sunday, when around 10 churches and prayer halls were attacked in Mangalore, headquarters of Dakshina Kannada district, and the neighbouring Udupi district, damaging crosses, windowpanes and furniture, there was no attack Monday.
There were clashes between Christian protesters and right-wing Hindu groups and stone pelting at police by the protesters.
Udupi was free of any incident Monday, Prasad said.
One pastor suffered minor injuries in the Sunday attacks, he said.
Meanwhile Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was in Mangalore Monday evening on a scheduled visit. He was to reach the city in the morning but his aircraft could not land because of bad weather, his spokesperson said.
“The visit is a scheduled one and not because of the violence in the city,” the spokesperson added.
Schools and colleges remained shut in Mangalore Monday.
Soon after the attacks Sunday, hundreds of Christians in Mangalore demonstrated in front of churches and prayer halls, demanding the arrest of the attackers.
On Sunday too, police used batons and teargas shells to disperse protesters and banned the assembly of five or more people in Mangalore city for three days.
Around 10 people were injured in the Sunday clashes between Christian and Hindu groups. A few policemen were also hurt in the stone throwing, police said.
The Hindu groups maintained they did not attack churches but only prayer halls run by some Christian groups whose main activity was, according to them, to convert Hindus.
There have been attacks on one or two Christian prayer halls in the rich coffee plantation district of Chikmagalur and the central Karnataka district of Davangere earlier this month, the attackers alleging that the churches were enticing Hindus to convert to Christianity.
The attacks on Churches and prayer halls in the coastal districts began Sunday as news spread that New Life Fellowship, a protestant group, was circulating pamphlets/booklets asking people not to worship Hindu gods.
“That is false. We have neither printed nor distributed any such material,” a senior pastor of the New Life in Bangalore told IANS requesting anonymity.
“We are in Karnataka for the last 25 years and have around 45 churches, 15 of them in Dakshina Kannada. Let anyone prove that in the past 25 years we have indulged in conversion and prosecute us,” he said.
“Let them check our accounts,” he said in response to allegations that the New Life receives huge money from abroad to indulge in conversion activity.
On increasing attacks on Christians in Karnataka in recent weeks, the state chief of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Shivakumar Swamy said: “It is because the people are awakened. In many of the recent cases, it was the people who protested against conversions and handed over those indulging in such activities to police. Neither VHP nor Bajrang Dal was involved,” he maintained.
“In our baithaks (meetings) we do educate people on the threat posed to Hindus and Hinduism by people who are forcing or inducing Hindus to convert to other religions. Since it is the people themselves who are acting against such activities, one sees large numbers of incidents of protests and attacks on those indulging in conversion,” Swamy said.
Asked whether the VHP, Bajrang Dal and other Hindu groups lodge police complaints whenever they come to know of conversion activities, he said: “We have done so many times. People caught in the act have been handed over to the police.”
In the case of the Mangalore incidents, Hindu groups had warned “these people against continuing conversion activities. Obviously, it was not heeded and attacks have taken place. This does not mean to say the VHP was involved,” Swamy added.