Karnataka Bajrang Dal convener arrested

Karnataka Bajrang Dal convener arrested

Agencies
Posted online: Sep 19, 2008 at 1005 hrs


Mangalore, September 19: Karnataka convener of Bajrang Dal Mahendra Kumar was on Friday night arrested by the police in connection with the spate of attacks on churches and prayer halls in parts of the state.
"Mahendra Kumar has been arrested tonight," Western Range Deputy Inspector General of Police A M Prasad said.

Soon after the attacks on churches on September 15 in parts of Mangalore and Udupi in coastal regions and in Chikamaglur in Malnad area, Bajrang Dal owned responsibility for them, claiming that incidents of forced conversion had prompted them.

With attacks on churches continuing unabated, the Centre on Friday issued a strong advisory asking the BJP government in the southern state to take immediate effective steps to check the violence, which it said was a "breach" of the Constitution.

In the advisory to Karnataka, the second in 24 hours, the Union Home Ministry brought to the notice of Karnataka government that elements behind such incidents continue to roam freely.

The advisory was, however, not sent under the emergency provisions of the Constitution (Article 355).

On its part, the Karnataka government described the advisory, the second to be issued, as "hasty and unwarranted".

"It is a hasty step. The Centre should have waited for some more time. Our government has already brought the situation under control. There are no casualties in the attack on churches in the state," Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya said.