Churches Attacked In Tamil Nadu
NAMAKKAL, Tamil Nadu, SEPT. 17, 2008, 18.00 Hrs (SAR News):
Paramathi Vellore, a small agricultural town in Namakkal district, witnessed tense moments September 15 of this month after Hindu Munnani (Hindu Front) activists attacked churches.
The Namakkal Superintendent of Police conducted investigations and ordered the arrest of two Munnani activists.
According to police, the attack was unprovoked. No prior enmity existed between the two sides. The arrested persons – Ramesh (25), Hindu Munnani's Porthanur town secretary, and Varadharajan (25), the outfit's organiser in charge of Kabilarmalai – had no personal grudge against the two churches but had carried out a blind attack which had no connection with the serial violence against Christians in Orissa.
The outfit members barged into the Pentecostal Mission Church at Tamil Nagar at 9.30 p.m. and reportedly attacked the 39-year-old pastor Jebaraj.
They broke the glass windows in the church and damaged the pastor's motorbike headlights.
A group of people carried out similar attack at the Nasreyan Church in Paramathi Vellore and allegedly hurled abuses at the pastor Gnana Seelan (55). They broke the window glasses of the church and fled.
The arrested persons were remanded to judicial custody. With the communal conflagration in Orissa, which saw churches and prayer halls being attacked, and the same is now spreading to Karnataka and even the borders of Kerala, fears are being raised whether Tamil Nadu would also face a similar situation. But there is nothing to fear, if one were to go by the opinions of a few police officers and leaders of the major saffron outfits in the State.
Despite expressing resentment over conversions, the state VHP leader Veerabahu says, "There is little chance for such disturbances here, as the situation in Tamil Nadu is different."
Hindu Munnani leader Rama Gopalan, claiming to have a following of 1.5 million members, too, echoes the same view. The VHP has a membership of 30,000 in addition to the one lakh poojaris in the state.
Bajrang Dal state organiser Sivalingam says, "We never subscribe to violence. But if we are attacked, we will retaliate." But Bajrang Dal, according to him, has 10,000 members in the state and 100 of them are full-time workers.
ADGP (Law and Order) T. Rajendran, too, feels that groups like Bajrang Dal do not have a strong presence in the state. "In any case, the police have an eye on them", he says, adding that Tamil Nadu is a more secular state.
The State Intelligence officials say they have no information suggesting a communal conflict.
However, Sivalingam says that Bajrang Dal members, who are ready for any kind of sacrifice for the nation, will discuss a movement against the conversions at a meeting to be convened in Chennai September 20.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Courtesy: http://www.cbcisite.com/cbcinews2402.htm