Vandalism not Attack!

Photo clearly shows the location of the grotto, outside the church compound, on the roadside. Glass covering the grotto was found to be broken - material for channels crying for breaking news! (photo by Daijiworld)

TNN, 26 January 2010, 09:44pm IST

Home minister V S Acharya has described Monday's vandalism in religious places in Mysore and Karwar as acts of thefts and not any concerted attack on churches. In an informal interaction with mediapersons on the sidelines of inauguration of the police commissionerate here on Tuesday, Acharya said these are acts of theft carried outside the church but on its premises and are not attacks on churches per se.

"The miscreants did damage property on church premises," he said adding that those involved in these incidents will not be spared. "Our government took stern action even when religious places were attacked by miscreants in the past," he said adding that the culprits in this case too would not be spared. The process of rounding up people and those involved in this incident - directly or otherwise is happening, Acharya added.

Make own security arrangement: BANGALORE, January 27, 2010: In the wake of twin attack on churches in Karnataka on last Monday, the BJP Government has expressed its difficulties in providing police security to religious institutions across the state on account of limited number of police personnel.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Home Minister V S Acharya said it was difficult to the government to deploy police to guard all temples, churches and mosques in the State. Karnataka has only 90,000 police personnel but there are over 50,000 temples, churches and mosques in the State.

Dr Acharya pleaded the Government’s helplessness to protect or provide protection to the churches, mosques and temples as the police force was not sufficient to handle the task. The religious institutions have to make arrangements to provide security at the places of worship, he said. Dr Acharya appealed to the media and the opposition parties not to exaggerate the church attacks to tarnish the BJP Government and said that the attacks could well have been mere acts of theft or burglary.

Added on 14.02.2010: For some politicians, Terror attacks (Pune Blast killing 9) are trivial compared to road side Grotto vandalism!!!