Church targeted in Davangere

Davangere: A Christian prayer hall in Bada village, about 25 km from Davangere town, was attacked and torched by a mob of about 300 people on Sunday morning.

The attackers broke the asbestos ceiling and windows and set fire to material inside, including copies of the Bible, the cross and the pulpit.

Ten people have been arrested in this connection. Tension prevailed for sometime at the Bada police station with about 250 people demanding the release of those arrested and the police resorting to lathi-charge to disperse them.

The incident at Bada occurred even as Section 144 was in force within a 200-metre radius of three other prayer halls in K.T.J. Nagar police station limits in Davangere town, which have been under attack since mid-August.

The Hindu Jagarana Vedike had threatened to forcibly close down these “unauthorised places” if the district administration did not do so by September 6.

No religious outfit has, however, claimed responsibility for the incident at Bada. The incident in the village occurred just after the prayers concluded on Sunday at about 9 a.m., said Pastor Lukas E., who was at the site of the attack.

He described the attackers as “locals”, but refused to name them.

The police have registered a suo motu case, while the pastor said he did not wish to file a case against anyone because they were his “own people”.

Pastor Lukas said that the congregation started in 1991 and the building had been there since 1997.

He said there had been no trouble earlier.

The villagers, who accused the Protestant prayer congregation of “converting the locals” by luring them with gifts and by “demeaning Hindu gods and religious customs”, said that the attack was “spontaneous”.

The villagers said that the attackers were “angry locals” and those from the nearby villages “who want to safeguard the Hindu religion”.

B.K. Giridas, husband of the president of the Bada panchayat who joined in heaping accusations on the prayer congregation, claimed that he came on the scene after the violence had taken place and therefore could not stop the damage.

Mallikarjuna D.C., a local, pointed out that the villagers had earlier lodged complaints with the district authorities on the prayer congregation and demanded that it be vacated.

While the pastor said that only three families in the village were Christian and the rest came for prayers from other places, the villagers claimed that as many as 40 families had been converted in the village, which has a population of 2,800.

However, when asked who the converted people were, the villagers claimed they had all left the village sensing trouble. Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patel said that those taking law into their hands would not be spared.

Deputy Commissioner K. Amar Narayan said that he had instructed the Police Department to conduct a taluk-wise survey of churches and prayer halls to check how many of them were authorised.

Asked if the survey would also be conducted on places of worship of other religious faiths, the Deputy Commissioner said that it would be exclusively on churches and prayer halls because the present controversy surrounded them.

He said the survey would be completed in two or three days.

Courtesy:  http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/08/stories/2008090860870600.htm

Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008