Explosion damages church in Hubli

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI, JULY 8. Exactly a month after an explosion occurred in a church at Wadi in Gulbarga district, a similar incident took place in a church in Hubli early on Saturday.

A blast was reported in St. John Lutheran Church located adjacent to the busy Hubli-Gadag Road at around 4 a.m. The main door of the church was destroyed and the iron shutters were damaged. Cracks developed in the walls, and a part of the ceiling came down. However, there was no loss of life.Police officers said gelatine might have been used. Explosive experts from Mangalore had been requested to examine the site. They could not say whether the ISI might be involved, or whether there was any similarity to the blast at the church at Wadi.

Although the residents in the area heard a loud noise in the early hours of the day, it was only when some of them came out of their residences at 6 a.m. that the incident at the church came to light. Fr. James Talapatti of St. Peter's Church said that an attempt to break into the St. Peter's Church in Keshawapur area had been made half-an-hour earlier. However, the intruders fled when dogs started barking and the security staff put on the lights.

Alleging delay in the police responding to the incident, agitators in the locality set fire to a bus. They also pelted stones at buses. Women protestors squatted on the road to prevent the fire brigade from reaching the area. However, a fire engine was sent to the spot on a different route. The drivers of the fire engine and the bus that was set afire were ``manhandled'' by the irate crowd.

Christians, who gathered around the church, raised slogans against the police when the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dharam Pal Negi, visited the spot at around 9.30

Mr. Yohanan, Headmaster of St. Peter's School, told the Commissioner of Police that he heard dogs barking and saw three or four persons leaving in a car. Shortly thereafter, there was a loud noise from the church.

Mr. Yohanan told Mr. Negi that the police did not arrive immediately although they had been informed. The police control room reportedly declined to provide the telephone number of the Police Commissioner whom residents in the area wanted to contact. One police constable reached the area at around 8.30 a.m., and some other policemen after 9 a.m.

Members of the community complained to the Commissioner of Police against the attitude of the police to attacks against Christians. Complaints were not registered, they alleged.

Mr. Negi, said that security would be provided to important churches in Hubli, immediately. He asked the residents of the areas concerned to keep a vigil.

Mr. Jabbar Khan Honnali, Congress(I) MLA from Hubli, who arrived from Bangalore early today, was jeered by the crowd at the church where the blast took place. People demanded action against the miscreants and protection for children. Youth who had gathered at the church premises raised slogans in protest against the incident when Mr. Negi and Mr. Honnali went round the area.

Some persons, who tried to take out a procession near the railway bridge in Hubli, were chased away by the police when they resorted to stone-throwing. Traffic between Hubli and Gadag was disrupted.

There was tension in Hubli following the incident. A meeting of Christians was convened at the Basel Mission Church to discuss the situation. Rev. A. S. Kanavalli, pastor of the church, told presspersons that some of those who had come to the shrine had, in the morning, noticed some people moving around in suspicious circumstances.

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