Gang attacks Catholic church in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2012, 15:36 GMT]
Two devotees attending the annual festival of the Mannaar Kappal Church were seriously injured when a group of thugs stoned the church on Friday night. The latest attack is seen as an episode intended to cause ethnic disharmony between the Catholics and Muslims in Mannaar. The attack is attributed to a Muslim gang.

The injured were admitted to the Mannaar general hospital.

Muslim thugs had also detonated several packets of crackers in the church complex.

Reverend Fr Nehru was conducting the main mass in the church at that time. Army troops in large number were rushed to site when Christians and Muslims entered in verbal dual and to ease the tension, sources said

Catholic community leaders say that the main aim of the stone throwing by Muslim thugs was to create animosity between the two communities. Such stone throwing incident was also reported in the same church two weeks ago. But the SL police had failed to take action again that attack even after the affected party had made complaint with the Mannaar Police.