Bangalore: Yeddy Orders COD Probe into Church Attack
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Sep 11: Acting quickly to contain the damage to the BJP government’s image and credibility over the attack against St Francis De Sales Church at Hebbagodi in Anekal taluk of Bangalore rural district on Wednesday morning, Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has ordered a Corps of Detectives (COD) probe into the incident.
"We will refer the incident for investigation to COD," the chief minister announced in the state legislative assembly on Friday asserting the government’s commitment to ensure the safety and protection of all churches and places of worship belonging to the minorities.
Yeddyurappa reiterated the orders issued by the state home minister Dr V S Acharya for shoot-at-sight against any culprits found attacking or vandalizing churches and other religious places of worship.
File pictures of church attack
"We would not spare even the miscreants found to be trespassing into the places of worship," he declared.
The chief minister made it clear that senior police officers have been specificially asked to get to the bottom of the entire incident and identify the miscreants bent upon damaging the state’s reputation for peace and communal harmony.
Yeddyurappa promised to make a detailed statement on the entire episode including the progress in the police investigations.
Unidentified miscreants had damaged the statues of Jesus and Mary kept in front of a grotto in the church premises, located barely 20 kms from the city, besides damaging its glass window panes.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president R V Deshpande and working president D K Shivakumar had strongly condemned the attack against the church coming exactly a year after the series of such attacks in Mangalore, Bangalore and many other places, and had demanded a COD probe.
Shivakumar had personally visited the spot and promised support from the workers of Congress party.
The home minister Dr V S Acharya had dismissed the incident as a 'minor' act of vandalism probably caused by the anti-social elements or anti-BJP forces to tarnish the Yeddyurappa regime’s image, especially when the state legislature session was underway.
Incidentally, a delegation of Catholic leaders led by Bangalore Archbishop Dr Bernard Moras called on the state governor H R Bharadhwaj to apprise him of the situation and also submitted memoranadums to the state home minister.
Bangalore: Cong Leaders Condemn Church Attack, Demand Arrest of Culprits
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