Date:02/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/02/stories/2008100253580300.htm

Karnataka

Forcible conversions reason for attacks: panel

Staff Correspondent

The team comprised five members
They toured 12 villages in Davangere

DAVANGERE: A five-member fact-finding committee of the Akhila Karnataka Veerashaiva Mahasabha has said that “rampant forcible conversion” of poor people from different communities, to Christianity, in many villages, was the chief reason for the attacks on churches here.

The committee toured 12 villages in the district in the last three days and made inquiries with the people. It said the attacks on churches in the district were owing to forcible conversions by “Christian agents,” who masqueraded as pastors.

The committee comprised S.S. Pavate, former Inspector-General of Police and president of the State unit of the Akhila Karnataka Veerashaiva Mahasabha; T.S. Niranjan, an advocate; Srikant Chowkimath, a software engineer from Bangalore; Nanjundaswamy and Yajman Mothiveeranna. Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Mr. Pavate and Mr. Niranjan said they had come to know that certain people from the Christian community from outside Davangere had established prayer halls and small churches in villages where there were no Christian families. After establishing the prayer halls, they “targeted” poor people from different communities and “lured” them to Christianity. They said people from the Kuruba, Nayaka, Veerashaiva, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and even Brahmin communities had been “pressured” to convert. A report would be submitted to the State and Union governments.