Nalin accuses Congress of fomenting communal tension to tarnish Amit Shah's visit

MANGALURU: DK MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said the brutal attack on BJP workers at Thotta Bengre while returning from fishermen’s convention that party chief Amit Shah addressed at Malpe on Tuesday is the handiwork of the Congress. Flustered by the success of Navashakti conventions that Shah addressed during his two-day visit to DK, Congress engineered these attacks to give credence to their earlier statements that his visit would foment communal unrest, Nalin said.
Addressing reporters on Thursday, Nalin demanded an impartial probe in to the entire sequence of events that left three party workers critical and two others nursing grievous injuries, said police officers at the site of the clashes have confirmed that the BJP workers were methodically attacked and it was not spur of the moment reaction to slogan shouting by the workers as is being projected. “Even school children returning from an excursion make more noise,” Nalin said.

Asserting that the attackers were armed with clubs and sharp edged weapons, Nalin said the attacks were instigated by Mangaluru City South MLA J R Lobo at the instance of district minister B Ramanath Rai. “Lobo who played the religion card in the Mulki Sundar Ram Shetty road naming issue is now trying to foment communal unrest in his constituency, put the blame on BJP with the sole intention of trying to convert the unrest into electoral gains,” Nalin alleged.

Asserting that elders of two communities in Bengre area want peace to prevail, Nalin said if Lobo is truly interested in peace in the region should direct police to probe the ganja network thriving in the area. “Lobo, whom I thought was a gentleman, should get police to check on illegal immigrants residing in the area as well as houses illegally constructed in the area,” Nalin said. Police who are aware of these issues are not able to act freely due to tacit pressure on them, he added.