Police suspect it to be work of mischief

By K.V.Subramanya

BANGALORE, JULY 8. The blast at St. John's Lutherean Church in Hubli early on Saturday is suspected to be a "mischief played by the local people."

Sources in the Police Department told The Hindu on Sunday that the church was located at Railway Colony, off Keshavapur, where a good number of labourers from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were residing.

Most of them were converted Christians who are divided into two groups and had clashed on many occasions in connection with having a hold over the church activities. A few cases had been registered with the police in this regard, the sources said.

Going by the intelligence reports, it is suspected that some of these unscrupulous elements might be behind the blast. However, no concrete evidence was available right now, the sources said.

Further, the manner in the which the church door had been damaged showed that the damage was not caused by an explosion but someone had broken it, the sources said.

Unlike in the blast that took place at St. Anne's Church in Wadi, detonators and timer devices were not used to execute the blast in Hubli.

"The Saturday's blast was of a very crude nature, devoid of any professionalism. It appears that it was a mischief played by some local people," the sources said.

There was no similarity between the blast in Hubli and those that occurred at churches in Wadi, Andhra Pradesh and Goa on the same day, about a month ago, the sources said.

Meanwhile, according to information available with the intelligence agencies, there had been a "spurt" in conversions during the last few months in the State, particularly in some parts of North Karnataka.

The sources said that although police had no definite clues about the culprits so far, the suspicion was that the blasts were executed to scare the Christians from going ahead with the conversions.

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Section  : Southern States
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