Stones thrown at prayer hall- Cracks in glass casing of grotto at Mangalore shrine, idols safe |
| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
The St Joseph Vaz Prayer Hall near Mangalore; (above) the cracked glass casing of the grotto. Bangalore News Photos
Glass shards were strewn outside the grotto of St Joseph Vaz Prayer Hall this morning but the idols of Mother Mary and Infant Jesus were found to be intact. The police have registered a case against unknown persons for causing damage to a place of worship. Mangalore police commissioner S. Murugan termed it a "stray incident" and appealed to people not to panic. "I request everyone not to panic as we have things under control," he said. The prayer hall is located at Panir, off Mangalore city, some 360km from here. It came up a few years ago in place of a 250-year-old Our Lady of Mercy Church and is popular with the local people. Karnataka health minister U.T. Khader, who visited the spot and noticed cigarette butts near the prayer hall entrance, blamed the attack on "anti-socials". He said the police have been instructed to nail the culprits as soon as possible. "This is mainly to create a sense of insecurity in this region. I'm sure people will understand the situation and not panic," he said. The attack on a place of worship has come after many years of calm in south Karnataka, which has a strong presence of Sangh Parivar groups. In 2008, there were several attacks on churches in Mangalore and nearby places, most of them blamed on Bajrang Dal and Sri Rama Sene activists. The incident comes a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government would not allow any religious group to incite hatred in the country. He was speaking after a spate of attacks on Christian institutions in Delhi. This is also the first attack after over 140 bishops from the Conference of Catholics Bishops of India (CCBI) recently held a candlelight march in Bangalore protesting against the Delhi attacks. Condemning the prayer-hall incident, CCBI deputy secretary-general Fr Stephen Alathara hoped it had no communal angle. "Let's wait for the police report on who did it and why," he said. "But it's painful for us to see places of worship come under attack. We condemn desecration of any religious institution, whether a church, temple or a mosque. Such attacks are against our heritage and affect the communal harmony and social equilibrium of our secular society." |
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February 26, 2015
India: Stones thrown at Mangalore prayer hall
The Telegraph - 26 Feb 2015
