Gang targets Mangalore minority schools

Windows and a grotto of St Theresa at a school in the heart of the city were broken by a stone-pelting gang on early Sunday morning. This is the seventh such attack on minority institutions here since 2008.

The attackers came on two motorcycles around 4.30 am and began pelting stones at the windows of St Theresa School and the grotto of St Theresa there. They fled when the night watchman raised alarm.

The school management has lodged a complaint with Kadri police station. They also sought their protection for the school.
Rose Celine, secretary of Bethany Education Trust that runs the institution, said the school was targeted in 2008 and 2009 also.

“Those behind Sunday’s attack and the organisations that supported them should be punished so that they do not commit such acts henceforth. The grotto of our guiding angel, St Theresa, has been attacked and it was an attempt to commit sacrilege,” she said.

In a related incident, the attackers threw stones at Padua high school building at Yeyyadi, damaging its window panes. They pelted stones at a grotto too but since it was a little far, the stones did not reach the target.

Police commissioner Samantha Kumar Singh said they had started a crackdown on the suspected elements.

The current wave of attacks comes days ahead of LK Advani’s rath yatra entering Mangalore. Sources in the BJP said the attacks were engineered to create communal situation and to force Advani to skip Mangalore.

Sri Rama Sene’s district chief Kumar Malemar said their groups were not involved in the incidents and he learnt about the attacks only in the evening.

Bajrang Dal chief Jagadish Shenva also disassociated his organisation from the incident. “Had our groups been involved, we would have owned it up, like we did before,” he said.